


The Cycle Of Life

by 47piiirate



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26916700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/47piiirate/pseuds/47piiirate
Summary: Only a month after the battle with Lily's raiders, a group of ex-military convicts threatening to take over the school leads to the young Ericson survivors at war once again. Just when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, Clementine and Louis' choices come back to haunt them at the worst possible time. Who will step up to save the group?
Relationships: Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1- Anniversary

The sun beamed through the window of the Clementine and Aj's room as Clementine sighed and opened her eyes. It seemed to her like everyday the sun rose earlier and earlier, although she didn't have a clock or anything to prove that theory. As of late, Clementine dreaded opening her eyes and having to struggle out of bed only to do just about nothing the entire day. It was about one month ago when the young girl had her left foot amputated by the even younger boy Alvin Junior, defying her wishes to kill her so she wouldn't turn. Sometimes she wondered if it would've been better if she just died that day, those times usually coming when she watches everyone do the work for the school that she can no longer do, like hunting, fishing, protecting the place, and just about anything that requires two feet. Clementine spent so many years fighting to survive, forced to make tough decision after tough decision, only to end up crippled and bound to the school that she calls home. The people that she used to fight to protect were the people that were protecting her now. It just didn't seem right to her at all.

Clem looked over her shoulder to Aj's bed only to see it empty."That boy, where has he gone off to today?" she mumbled to herself as she slowly rose out of her bed. It was about time to start the day she concluded, no more laying around. As she grabbed her crutches and forced herself out of bed, the door to her room slowly crept open. The large brown fur trench coat quickly gave away who it was, and Clementine smiled to see her boyfriend, Louis with a plate of food in his hand and a ear to ear grin on his face. No matter how down she was feeling, Louis always found a way to brighten up Clementine's mornings. "Looks like sleeping beauty finally decided to get out of bed! I was starting to think you were dead in here to be honest" Louis joked as he set the plate of food down on Clem's nightstand. "You hungry?"

Clementine stared at the plate of food and back at Louis. "Thank you" She replied as she grabbed the plate and started to eat. She didn't really like that Louis persisted to bring her food everyday, she would much rather like to get up and get it herself. But she didn't want to be rude so she just kept her mouth shut.  
"I figured you would maybe wake up earlier today, considering how super special today is" Louis said as he looked down at Clem completely annihilating her breakfast. She paused and looked up at him. "Special?" Today sure didn't feel "Super special." Louis' smile quickly turned into a frown as stared at his girlfriend, disappointed. He was hoping he wasn't the only one of them who remembered why today was significant.

Today was in fact the one month anniversary of Clementine and Louis' relationship. Well, kind of. They never really declared themselves a relationship, but to Louis it all started a month ago when Clementine confessed her feelings to him while they were "tuning" the piano.

Clementine's mind raced trying to think of why today was so special, but to no avail. Was it Louis' birthday? Was it HER birthday? She had no real way of knowing due to the fact that she gave up on keeping track of the days since she lost her foot. It was pretty clear to Louis that she had no idea what today was.   
"Jeez, that's a real heart breaker Clem" Louis jokingly said with a chuckle as he clutched his shirt. He was trying to hide the fact that it actually bothered him, but Clementine saw right through her boyfriend's fake chuckle. 

"Today's our one month anniversary, you little dummy" As soon as Clem heard that she felt terrible. She quickly realized that it felt like about month ago from when she carved a heart around each others initials and confessed her feelings towards Louis. 

"I'm sorry Louis. It's been hard to keep track of days lately and i've had a lot on my mind, not that it's not impor-" Clementine was cut off by Louis pressing his finger to her lips.

"Relax it's fine, I totally get it. I'm surprised i've even been able to keep track of the days, and i'm basically a genius!" he replied, quickly putting a smile back on Clem's face.

"So I guess that means i'm stupid then huh?" Clem replied as she grinned.

"You said it not me..."

"Hey! that's not what you were supposed to say jerk" Clementine said as she playfully swung a punch at Louis.

"I'm kidding i'm kidding. You're a certified smarty pants, don't you worry Clem. Now anyways, I got you a little something for this super special day" Louis happily stated as he reached both of his hands into his jacket. "Close your eyes."

Clementine listened and closed her eyes, wondering what he could've gotten for her. She was hoping it wasn't anything too special, because she certainly didn't even deserve a gift in the first place for not even remembering their anniversary.

"Ok now open em up" Louis said as Clem opened her eyes almost instantly to see Louis with both of his hands behind his back. "Now let's play a little game I call pick a hand. The rules are pretty simple really. All you really have to do is pick a hand, left or right. You think you got that?"  
Clem chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I'm a certified smarty pants remember? Of course I got it." She paused for a second as she weighed out her options. "ummm, i'm gonna go with left."

"Ding ding ding! we got a winner folks! and here's your prize" Louis exclaimed as he revealed a small box in his left hand and handed it to Clem. She stared at it for a second and looked back up at Louis. "Well don't leave me waiting, open it up already!"

Clementine slowly opened the box and what was inside shocked her. It was a small silver necklace and a heart charm attached with "C+L" etched into it. Clem was speechless for a while, just looking in amazement at what is probably the greatest gift Louis could have gotten her, next to a new foot.

Louis finally broke the silence - "I sure hope you like it, it sure as hell wasn't easy carving our initials into that hea-" It was Louis' turn to get cut off, as Clem stopped him mid sentence with a kiss. "So I guess that means you liked it then?" Louis asked as he smiled. Clem didn't reply with words but instead with another kiss, and another one, and another until they motioned themselves back on to Clementines bed, both of their hearts racing, with Louis on top of Clem.

Louis parted lips with Clementine, and looked down at her. her hands were wrapped around his waist and her face was as red as a tomato. He definitely knew where this was going. But he had to make sure. 

"Clem do you want to....."

"Yes."

XXX

Louis slowly sat up from the bed and gazed back at Clementine, who's face was still as red as a tomato. "Well, that just happened...."  
"Yeah"

"That was ummm, nice?"

"Yeah" was all that could come out of Clem's mouth once again. Then once again it was silent. The pair were still both very surprised at what just happened.

"I think we should put our clothes on before AJ walks in here" said Clementine as she sat up and started to get dressed , almost forgetting about her little roommate for a moment. 

"Yeah good Idea" Louis agreed as he shot up like a bullet and did the same. 

Louis helped Clementine up and handed the crutches to her. "We should probably go see what everyone else is up to, i'm sure they're starting to wonder." Louis slowly walked out the room. Clem put on her new necklace and followed. The two neared the outside of the school until they heard yelling from what sounded like Violet, and another voice neither of them recognized. 

"That doesn't sound like a social call." Louis said, stating the complete obvious as usual. He sped up to go see what the commotion was, and Clementine followed as fast as she could on her crutches. Not again, not again. Was all that was running through her head as she neared the doors to outside. It seemed like she could never have a good day without something bad happening.


	2. Chapter 2 - A New Threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are people at the gate, who don't sound very friendly. What do they want, and what will they do to get it?

Clementine emerged from the doors and looked over to see everyone forming a crowd at the front gate. Violet was on the top of the gate at the guard post, arguing with someone from the outside.

AJ, who was watching the commotion quietly turned around and ran towards Clementine with a fierce look on his face. Clem had seen that face before, it was a face of anger and bloodlust, and it was becoming clear that whatever was happening at the gate was very serious.

“Clementine! Where were you?” The boy asked, confused. Usually when there was a problem like this Clementine would be the first person to try to handle the situation, but for the moment she was nowhere to be found.

“I’m sorry AJ, I was…. Sleeping. But that doesn’t matter, what’s going on at the gate?”

“There’s a bad man at the gate, he’s trying to get inside. We have to stop him!” AJ angrily said as he clenched his fists. He wanted to kill the man and get it over with but he knew that Clem would be disappointed if he did something like that. She always told him that he had to restrain his anger, and he did, no matter how hard it was. “He said he was going to start shooting if we don’t let him Clem, we can’t let him do that!”

Clementine’s heart started racing and her body started to go into panic mode, but she forced herself to keep her composure. She may be crippled, but the group still looked to her in times like these and she couldn’t show any fear. “Calm down, we’re not gonna let that happen.” She patted AJ’s head and gave him a comforting smile. “Remember what I taught you, you have to stay calm when under pressure. Now let’s go deal with this.

AJ smiled. “Right, let’s go.” And the two of them went to the front gate, listening closely to what was being said.

“Alright, i’m about done with these little fucking games Ms. Patchy” the mystery man yelled, referring to Violet and her eyepatch. “It’s either you open this goddamn gate or I bust it down. Simple as that.” 

Clementine pushed through the crowd consisting of Louis, Aasim, Ruby, Willy, and Omar and peered through the gate to get a good look at the man. He was a giant, at least 7 Feet tall and at least 300 pounds of complete muscle bulging through clean military scrubs. He had an assault rifle in his hand and was standing next to some sort of military humvee from before the apocalypse. Clem looked closely into the windows of the car to reveal what seemed to be at least two other people inside. From first glance they seemed to be much more dangerous than Lily’s group, which was very bad. Clementine and the rest of the group had to throw everything they had at those raiders in order to defeat them, and now just a month later after barely recovering from that battle they seem to have another one on their hands. Clementine almost laughed in her head at how humorously unlucky her life has been since the zombies first appeared. She could never catch a break it seemed.  
“I’m not opening shit, asshole. You don’t scare me” Violet replied to the man, not backing down from the new unknown threat. “We’ve dealt with people just like you who tried their luck with us, and we’ll do it again. I’ll do it again.”

“You must be having trouble SEEING your mistake here, little girl.” the man retorted, taking a jab at Violet’s eye troubles once again. “We can blow this place to pieces if we really want to. So you really should watch your mouth and open the goddamn gate before I give the go ahead to my friends in the car and we tear this gate down. Ramirez, show them what we got for these sons of bitches.” The man known as “Ramirez” followed the order and opened the driver seat to the humvee, flashing a rocket launcher in his hands with a smile on his face straight out of someone’s nightmares. Clementine analyzed the man through the gate. He looked to be at least two feet shorter than his superior and probably less than half his weight, But somehow he was much more intimidating. He had a burn mark completely covering his left cheek, and a large scar on the right side of his face from his temple to his jawline. Combined with a smile straight out of Hell Clementine concluded that he was either the devil himself or very close to it.

“How about it boss? If this little girl doesn’t want to listen why don’t we just blow down this fucking door?” Ramirez said with a raspy, almost demonic voice. Clem saw the bloodlust in his eyes, he wasn’t asking, he was practically begging for the all clear to completely slaughter everyone in the school.

“Not yet Ramirez. Don’t forget what we came here for” The big guy sternly ordered. Ramirez frowned, but obeyed. Violet quietly watched everything these men were doing, looking for an opening or a weakness that she could exploit. Something was off about the Ramirez guy. To her he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would take orders from anyone, but somehow the big guy seemed able to keep him in check. Violet looked back towards her group, and the faces of fear on almost everyone's face told her that she might have been making the wrong call. Clementine slowly approached Violet.

“Open the gate Vi” Clementine hesitantly ordered. She wanted to stand her ground but she knew that if they did someone in their group would end up dead, and she couldn’t risk it. Violet was reluctant at first, but she knew Clem was making the right call so she opened the gate. 

“Smart choice, patchy” The boss said as he signalled Ramirez to bring the humvee inside. He drove inside and parked the car right outside the school doors and the boss followed, scanning everyone in the school.

The man looked over to Clementine and stared at her missing foot. “Jesus Christ, i’m beginning to think I found myself a group of pirates” he joked as he started chuckling. “I crack myself up.”

Clementine was not amused. “What the hell do you want from us?” She asked, demanding answers.

“Hey now, that’s no way to be talking to your guests. I’m assuming you’re the leader here then Mrs. Stumpy”

“Watch it, I can still kill you. Now answer my question.”

The man completely ignored Clementine’s threat and continued talking. “Well it’s nice to meet you too, i’m Sanchez. Do you gotta name? Or do you prefer Mrs. Stumpy?”

Clementine paused for a minute and replied. “It’s Clementine. Now it’s your turn to answer my question.”

“Alright Clementine, you win. I was just passing through and I noticed that there was a school in this area. So i’d figure I would bring my friends and do some learning, but I didn’t anticipate that the students here would be so unwelcoming. I’m gonna have to tell your principal about this one, sorry Clementine” Sanchez ridiculously explained, as he got a little too close for comfort in Clementine’s face, kneeling down to her level. His other two comrades exited the car and approached, both with heavy weaponry in hand and ready to shoot. The other man who was in the car with Ramirez was about the same size, but much less intimidating with long dreadlocks going down past his shoulders. “Now you care to give your new classmates here a little tour of the place?”

This guy was starting to really get under Clementine’s skin. He almost reminded her of Louis, never taking anything seriously, but even Louis knew when to quit. Sanchez obviously did not. “That’s not gonna happen” She angrily replied as she slowly backed up away from the giant. “Anything else?”

“You’re a stubborn one huh? Well I guess it’d be no fun if you weren’t. But sadly for you little miss attitude, i’m not the kind of guy you say no to. Because i Get angry.” Sanchez walked closer to Clementine, so close that she could feel the heat from his breath as he spoke. “Really angry. Some call me insane, but I don’t think that’s fair. I would say I'm a little unhinged. Now you want to give us that tour now?”

Clementine refused to break. “Fuck. You.”

Sanchez stopped for a moment, surprised that a woman with one foot and half his size was standing her ground against him. And with that he broke, and started laughing hysterically. “Oh my lord! I never thought I would see the fucking day. A little girl really thinking that she can take me on. It cracks me up.” Suddenly in almost an instant, Sanchez's face went from laughter to complete sheer anger as he balled his fists and threw a clean right hook right to Clementine’s jaw, knocking her off her crutches and into the dirt.

Louis was the first to react, running towards Clementine immediately after she hit the ground to make sure she was ok. Luckily the punch only knocked her out. He looked up at Sanchez with disgust on his face. “You fucking…..ANIMAL! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Louis’ fight or flight instinct kicked in and he immediately swung back at the not so gentle giant in an effort to catch him off guard. The effort was pointless though, as Sanchez dodged the punch with ease and grabbed Louis by his neck, picking him up with one arm. “I’m not gonna lie buddy, that was a stupid fucking idea. But I respect the effort. She must be your girlfriend or something huh?” Sanchez asked as he tightened his grip around Louis’ neck. “Well i’m a nice guy, so i’ll let you go to sleep with her then” Sanchez raised his fist ready to unleash a beating onto Louis, but he was cut off by the sound of a gun cocking back behind him.

“Don’t hit him or I'll kill you. And I mean it.” 

Sanchez turned his head to see AJ aiming a gun straight at his head. “This day just keeps getting better and better. First a crippled girl testing her luck with me and now a little fucking kid! What’s next, a baby? A cat? The possibilities are endless!”

“I’m not a kid. And I will kill you” AJ responded, trying to remain brave for the group. The only thought in his mind was protecting Clementine, and if he had to kill all three of these men then so be it.

“If I were you, i’d think about what might happen if you do pull that trigger. I’ll give you a hint since you don’t seem very smart- my friends over there will kill you and all of your friends. And if by some miracle you guys manage to take care of them two, which you won’t, you have about ten minutes to celebrate until three more cars full of my men come here to finish the job. Now, what’s your choice kid? You want your friends to live or do you want them to die?

Aj slowly put his gun down. He wanted to kill that man so bad after seeing what he did to Clementine, but he knew what the smart choice was. Like Clem always told him, he couldn’t let his anger take over in times like this. He would have another chance to kill Sanchez. And when that time came, he wouldn’t hesitate.

“Good choice kiddo. Now it’s getting pretty obvious that no one wants to give me that tour, so i’ll get acquainted with the place my damn self. Ramirez, Johnson, Line these kids up and keep an eye on them until the reinforcements arrive.” 

“Sir yes sir!” the two of them yelled in harmony as they forced everyone to line up and give up their weapons.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, i’m late for class.” And with that Sanchez walked into the school.


	3. On The Road Again

Rain droplets slowly went from light to a heavy downpour as the residents of Ericson’s Boarding school were lined up single file on their knees, awaiting their new adversary to finish his “tour” of the school. Disappointment flowed through everyone’s mind. How could they let this happen? Could they have done something to stop these men? What’s going to happen now? Those were just some of the questions running through the young boys and girl’s heads as they helplessly kneeled at gunpoint awaiting their fate.

Aj refused to get in the line and stayed next to Clementine, who was still unconscious from the punch she received from Sanchez. Louis, who was also unconscious following being nearly strangled to death by the seven foot monster laid right next to Clementine. Neither of them looked to be in good shape, they were already out for five minutes and needed medical attention fast. But that was the last thing on these soldiers' minds.

Ramirez walked towards AJ, rifle in hand, and rested his boot on AJ’s head. “You gonna get in line squirt? Or am I gonna have to kill you? I’m not as kind as my partner Sanchez. If you pointed a gun at me like that, I would have your head on my fucking wall.” 

Aj didn’t budge nor did he even give the threat a response. 

“Alright, that’s enough. Time to die squirt.” Ramirez aimed his gun at the little boy’s head. Ruby, Violet, Aasim the rest of the residents all started yelling, pleading for him to stop.

“Please don’t do it! He’s just a kid!” Ruby begged.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Violet said as she attempted to get up, only to be stopped by the barrel of a gun to the back of her head. They were helpless, there was nothing they could do to stop this man.

“Hold on Ramirez. Sanchez didn’t say we could kill anybody. Just cool off and bring him into the line” the dreadhead soldier, Johnson, ordered. 

By some miracle it worked. Ramirez put his gun down and picked up AJ by his hair, throwing him into the line. He walked towards Johnson with anger in his face. “I don’t fucking take orders from you, remember that. Next time you try to tell me what to do you’re gonna be the one who ends up dead, partner.” Ramirez was clearly not a man to be messed with judging from the terrified look and sweat going down his comrade’s face after hearing that warning.

After about 5 more minutes that felt like hours for the Ericson survivors, Sanchez finally exited the school doors and approached his men. 

“Sir, what do you think? Is this the place? Johnson asked his superior. 

“Well minus the dog they had in there that tried to tear my balls off, which I would have appreciated a little warning about, this place is built like a fucking castle. It’s perfect “ Sanchez replied as he looked towards the gate. “Looks like they made it” he added as three more humvees pulled into the school and multiple men and women hopped out the cars, running towards Sanchez. All of them were dressed in military uniform as well, making it clear that this group was some sort of ex - military organization.

A near elderly man with A thick graying beard led the group of over a dozen soldiers as they neared Sanchez. “Sorry for being late sir, we ran into a couple roadblocks on the way here” the old man explained as he saluted his boss.

“At ease Lyon, you’re just in time” Sanchez answered.

“So what’s the status report sir? Is this the place?” Lyon asked, looking down at the array of faces lined up in front of him and the two layed out to his right. “Did you run into trouble?”

“I wouldn’t say that, just a couple kids who don’t know their manners and their murderous pup. But they’re dealt with now, as you can see. And yeah, this is definitely just what we’ve been looking for.”

“Good job sir, but what are we going to do with these kids?”

“Well honestly I haven’t thought about that part yet. I want to kill them for trying to disobey my orders, and I know Ramirez wants to as well.” Sanchez added, looking at his psycho soldier who responded with a smile confirming that he would very much like to kill them. “But they’re just kids and they pose no real threat to us whatsoever. So there’s no real point in offing em.”

This order quickly turned Ramirez’s smile upside down. “ You got to be fucking kidding me boss! These kids try to fucking kill you and you’re just gonna let them walk?”

“Yes, that’s what I said Ramirez. Killing them would just be a waste of bullets.”

“Then let’s slit their throats and get it over with, we can’t just let them walk. It’s too dangerous” Ramirez argued. 

“Dangerous? Which one of these little rascals are dangerous? We outnumbered them and they just let us walk in their home. These kids are sweeter than cinnamon, i’m honestly surprised they even made it this long” Sanchez smirked as he looked at the angry faces lined up. “Come on now, if you call these kids dangerous then I really got to question your judgement dear old Ramirez.”

“With all due respect sir, we didn’t make it this far by letting people walk. And you know that.” Ramirez walked closer to Sanchez, looking up at him with a serious look on his face.

“Don’t give me that bullshit Ramirez” Sanchez replied as he laughed. “You know they’re not a threat. You just want to kill them, you fuckin psycho.”  
“So what if i do?”

“Well I don’t care if you want to kill them, my order’s final. We gotta problem?”

“I-.....no sir.” Ramirez frowned. He didn’t like it, but he would have to listen. For now.

“Alright then” Ramirez looked back to the teenagers. “Now for you guys. Today’s your lucky day because i’m feeling merciful. Now listen real close, because I don’t like to repeat myself. Go bring your friends inside, give ‘em whatever they need. Then pack up all of your shit. You have until they wake up to have all your belongings packed, then you guys gotta go. Got it?”

“This is our home. This is all we know. You can’t just tell us to leave, we’ll die out there.” Violet pleaded. She didn’t really think it would work, but she didn’t really have much other options so she went for it. 

“That’s funny because I did just that, Mrs. Patchy. Didn’t I?”

Silence.

“Alright then. Any other questions or comments? None? Good. Now hurry up and go pack your shit up kids, the grown ups got work to do. Johnson, go escort the sleeping troublemakers inside and attend to their wounds. There’s beds in the rooms to the right when you walk in.” Johnson nodded and picked up Clementine and Louis in opposite arms, and walked into the school. “Ramirez, Rivera, Morris, Lyon, escort the rest of these children inside and make sure they don’t try anything. The rest of you, bring our supplies inside then contact Wilburt and tell him to bring his men over here. As for me, i’m going to go check on my new dog.”

“She’s not your dog Mr! She’s mine!” Aj yelled.

“Weird. I asked her if she had an owner and she said no. So i’m gonna take her word over yours, sorry kiddo.”

AJ was ready to fire back but was quickly grabbed by Ramirez. “Get the fuck back in line unless you want to die.” Aj clenched his fists then complied, getting in the line with the rest of his group heading in the school to get their belongings. This all felt like a terrible dream, Aj was just hoping that at any moment he would wake up in his bed and see Clementine across from him, safe and sound.

Sanchez climbed up on top of a table and cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice and yelled “Chop chop everyone! I want us set up here by sundown! Get it done!”

His soldiers answered in harmony. “Sir yes sir!”

XXX  
Clementine woke up in her bed, greeted with a pounding headache. Was it all a dream? She looked to her right and saw the dread headed soldier standing over her. Of course, she wasn’t lucky enough for that to be the case. She looked past Johnson to see Louis and Aj both sitting in the bed adjacent to hers, both of them quickly shooting up as soon as she moved her head.

“Clem!” Aj yelled as he ran past Johnson and hugged her. Even though today was probably one of the worst days he can remember, Clementine waking up made it a lot better. “I was really worried.”

“Hey goofball. I’m alright now, there’s no need to be worried anymore.” She slowly sat up, trying to ignore the feeling of her head pounding out of her skull. The memories of what happened came back to her as soon as she sat up, and she touched her cheek to feel a large bruise from where she was punched. “What happened after I was out? And why is HE here?” Clementine asked, referring to Johnson standing over her with a first aid kit in his hand.

“I’m just following orders ma’am. My boss told me to attend to you and that boy over there’s injuries.”

She quickly looked over to Louis. “Louis! Are you ok? What happened?”

Louis stood up, massaging his neck which was still very sore. “Well I beat up that guy who punched you of course, just like any good boyfriend would do. Right Aj?” He nudged Aj on the shoulder.

“Nuh uh, you’re a liar. The bad man choked him and he just woke up before you.” Aj explained, not realizing that Louis wanted him to lie.

“Wow thanks for having my back on that one Aj. Well I tried to beat him up at least, that’s all that counts right?”

Clem’s face quickly turned red with anger as she went to get up, only to be stopped by Johnson putting his hand out.

“Relax, don’t try to do anything crazy. You people are outnumbered, and you’re in no shape to be fighting. You may have a concussion from the fall you took so just take it easy ok?” Johnson calmly asked, trying to diffuse the situation.

Clementine scrunched her face, confused that one of the men who broke into her home was now trying to help her. But now, these people had some explaining to do. “Who are you people? What do you want from us?”

“Well, I guess you guys deserve an explanation. We’re ex - military convicts, all of us locked up in an Army prison out west. When the walkers came, that man you saw out there, Sanchez, Sergeant Avery Sanchez, staged a prison break. It worked, and we completely took over the prison. It was our camp for years, we had everything we needed. An almost endless supply of weapons, food and water. Not to mention all of the army vehicles that were left behind. Things were great for a while, until a massive herd of walkers showed up and fucked up what we had going for us. It was so massive we had to flee, even with all of the weapons we had and all the people we had. We continued to head east as far as we could, just trying to get some distance from them before we looked for a place to establish a base of operations. About a week ago we realized that we were extremely low on gas, and Sanchez made the decision to stop here and look for a place to make our camp. And well, here we are.”

Clementine calmed herself down as she listened. “Well this place is occupied, you’re gonna have to find somewhere else” She replied, trying to defend her home. “And we’re not just gonna leave.”

“Listen. I’m sorry that we’re taking your home, if it was up to me we would’ve left as soon as we found out there were people here. But Sanchez isn’t the type of guy you want to start with. Especially when he has damn near an army of ex - military convicts. If you want to keep your group alive, you would take the loss and leave. Trust me.” Johnson seemed to have humanity inside of him, unlike his peers, and Clementine quickly noticed that.

Louis butted into the conversation. “Ever since the walkers came, we have been here. Most of us don’t know anything but this place. It’s the only safe place for miles. We can’t just leave, it’s too dangerous.”

“Well at least out there you’ll have a chance of surviving. If you stay here and try to fight, you will die. Simple as that. I’m really sorry it has to be like this, but once Sanchez is set on something, there’s no stopping him. Just accept defeat. Please.” Johnson was practically begging for them to leave at this point.

“If you’re so against what this Sanchez guy is doing, why do you stay with him?” Clementine questioned. “You actually seem like a good person, so why would you take orders from him?”

“Well….it’s not so simple. Sanchez is the reason we made it this long. We would be nothing without him really. If he wasn’t around, half of the group would probably end up killing each other, especially people like Ramirez. And there’s a lot of people like Ramirez in this group.

Clementine shifted nervously upon hearing that name. It took a lot to get to Clementine, but Ramirez definitely got to her. It was something about him that just gave her the creeps. Maybe it was his damaged face that looked like he survived a nuclear bomb, or maybe it was his chilling demon - like voice and attitude that he carried himself with. Whatever it was, she would much rather keep Aj as far away from him as possible. “Ramirez. What’s his story?” She asked.

“Him…. if Sanchez is a bad man to you then you should stay the fuck away from Pablo Ramirez. Simply put, he’s about as human as a walker. He was arrested by the military for the mass murder of civilians while he was overseas. He killed dozens of innocent people without any remorse. When he was court martialed for his offenses, he went on a tangent for almost an hour about how ‘we would all pay’ for locking him up, and that ‘the end of the world was near.’ Everyone there concluded this man had no place in society, and they sentenced him to death. But sure enough, Ramirez was right. The end of the world as we all knew it came about two weeks later.” Johnson’s hands started trembling as he spoke. “.... No one knows how Sanchez keeps him in line, but the only reason Ramirez hasn’t tried to kill all of us in our sleep is because of him.”

Everyone went silent after they realized what they were up against.

“Please Mr, can’t you help us? If we worked together, we could beat him, i’m sure of it” Aj begged as he stared at Johnson. Clementine smiled, happy that she managed to raise a boy who was so brave he didn’t even fear a mass murdering psychopath.

“I-.....I don’t know. There’s maybe a handful of people like me here who were arrested for minor offenses, but still thrown in with the crazy killers. They would help you. But even with us you guys would stand no chance. It would still be hopeless i’m afraid….”

Aj’s face went sour. He wanted to stop these monsters so badly. “I wish I just killed him.” Clementine didn’t know what to say at this point to comfort Aj, so she just reached her hands out. Sure enough, Aj ran in for a tight hug. “What are we gonna do Clem?! We can’t just let them take our home!” Tears started pouring down the young boy’s cheeks.

“I know goofball. We’ll figure something out, I promise” Clementine said, trying to console him.

“We may be down now, but we’ll come back stronger Aj. Best believe it!” Louis chimed in, trying to help calm him down as well. In reality, Louis didn’t know if he even believed that himself.

Johnson couldn’t stand watching these kids get thrown out to their deaths. He knew he had to try to help them, even if it probably was suicide. “Well, I can’t help you now, but maybe I can down the road. You guys are just gonna have to play along for now and leave. I’ll talk to my friends in the group, the people i’ll trust, and figure out a plan. When it’s time to act, i’ll contact you.”

Clementine cocked her head to the side, confused. “How will you know where we are to be able to contact us?”

“Well, if I know Sanchez, he’ll have someone tail you. He hates having loose ends, so he’ll probably want to keep an eye on you for a while to make sure you guys aren’t trying to stage an attack on us. Don’t act suspicious and don’t tell the rest of your group about that. Once I find out where you are and once I figure out a plan i’ll reach out. You got that?

Clementine nodded and looked over to Louis and Aj who both silently gave nods of approval. “Yeah, we got it. Thank you.”  
“Don’t thank me just yet. I didn’t say that this would work. Just try to stay alive out there. And here, take this.” Johnson handed Clementine a first aid kit. “There’s a couple other things in there you might need too, just try to conserve it.” 

“So does our mystery hero have a name?” Louis asked.

“In fact I do. It’s Samuel. Samuel Johnson.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you sa-” Louis stopped his sentence as the door to the room opened, revealing the worst possible person that could’ve entered. Ramirez.

“Having fun in here Johnson?” he menacingally asked as he walked into the room.

Johnson quickly held on to his composure for dear life. “N-no, the girl woke up so I was just... making sure none of her wounds were serious.”

“Yeah well don’t get too chummy with em because it’s time for em to leave. Now get a move on kids.”

Louis helped Clementine to her feet and handed her crutches to her, and the three of them exited the room and went back outside, where the rest of the group was waiting for them at the outside of the gates along with Sanchez. 

Sanchez laughed as he looked at the mark he left on Clementine’s face. “Looks like I didn’t kill you huh? Either i’m getting rusty, or you got a steel chin there Clementine. “ He looked over to Louis, noticing a large choke bruise around his neck. “Jeez I did a number on you too huh pretty boy? I guess I still got it.”

Clementine slowly turned around on her crutches and started heading away from the school without saying a word, and everyone else followed.

“What no goodbyes? And here I thought we were friends. Well stay safe out there kids, i’m sure i’ll be seeing you.

And with that Clementine was on the road once again. “Where are we gonna go Clem?” Aj asked as they started walking.

Violet agreed “Yeah do you have a destination or are you just leading us nowhere?”

“I know a place.” Clementine calmly replied. “It’s far, but we can make it.” As she spoke, she rolled up her sleeve, revealing a marking that served as an old memory for her. “The New Frontier.”


	4. Steps Retraced

“The new frontier? What the hell is that?” Violet asked. She was positive she never heard anything like that her entire life.

Clementine closed her eyes and recounted all of the old memories. “It was well… a community. Maybe not a good one, but definitely the largest community i’ve ever seen. If it’s still standing, then that’s our best bet.”

“Was I with you?” Aj asked. Something about The New Frontier was familiar to him, but he couldn’t pinpoint why exactly.

“Yeah you were actually Aj, but you were so little back then there is no way you would remember.”

“And what, we just forget about the school? Do you even know how to get there? And even if we find the place, what makes you think they’ll just up and let us in?” Violet could’ve kept going the entire day with questions, but she decided to stop there.

Clementine almost opened her mouth to tell Violet about the plan, but stopped, remembering that there was probably someone listening. “They’ll let us in, I know they will. Their leader is an old friend of mine.” She quickly remembered something Lily said to her, that the raiders who attacked Ericson were in a war that involved the new frontier. “I hope.” Clem was betting on a longshot, but there weren't many more options for them to take, so she had to go for it.

“You hope? That's your plan to survive out here? Going somewhere that none of us besides you even know exists, that's who knows far just to hope that they let us in?”

“Hey Vi, calm down” Ruby said in her thick southern accent that could calm just about anyone down. “I get yer angry, but we gotta trust Clem. She’s the only one of us who’s survived out here on the road besides little Aj, so her instincts are what’s gonna keep us alive.”

“I can handle myself Ruby, I don’t need her ‘instincts’. Her ‘instincts’ are what got us here in the first place. If it wasn’t for her those people would have never made it into the school.”

Clementine had enough. “Do you have a better idea Violet?”

“Yeah I do. We turn around and kill every last one of those assholes that thought they could take OUR home. It’s a lot better than going to the middle of nowhere to find the ‘New Frontier’.”

“Then go try it. I’m going to find the New Frontier with or without you, and whoever is smart is going to come with me.”

Violet looked around for support. 

“Sorry Vi. But I have to go with Clem on this one. There’s no way we could possibly beat those guys” Louis said as he walked next to his significant other. Ruby and Aasim followed, agreeing with Clem’s plan as well.

“Figures.” Violet looked to Willy and Omar, who were still on the fence. “What about you guys? You gonna fight for your home or you gonna walk away like fucking cowards?”

“I-.... i’m sorry Violet. I’m not much of a fighter, I wouldn’t be much help to you anyways” Said Omar as he walked towards Clem’s side.

“I’m with you Violet. Mitch is still back there, and I can’t leave him. I just can’t” Willy confidently responded as he walked to Violet.

“So you two think you can take on an entire army? And win? Are you insane?” Aasim said, trying to be the voice of reason. 

“It’s not about winning. It’s about standing up for ourselves, not just walking away. We lost so many fucking people for that school, so many. It’s not right to up and let those people throw us out to our deaths without putting up a fight. If you guys don’t understand that, then you’ve all really changed.” Violet finished her short monologue and started to walk away, back towards the school. Willy followed.

Louis stepped up, trying to stop her. “Wait Vi. Do you think this is what Tenn would have wanted you to do? Please, just think about this.” Tenn was Violet’s closest friend before he died, and if anyone could have stopped her right now it would have been him.

Violet stopped walking and turned her head halfway to Louis. “Tenn’s dead.”

“Vi…..”

“No Louis. My answer is final. You’re not changing my mi-” BANG. Violet was stopped in her tracks by the sounds of a gunshot. She slowly looked down, to see blood gushing down from her stomach. 

Everyone froze, drew their weapons, and looked into the woods where the shot came from. Two figures slowly walked out of the shadows, both dressed in complete camouflage. Clementine quickly noticed the burn on one of the man’s cheeks. It was Ramirez.

“Woah there! I would put those guns down if i were you guys, because I guarantee my trigger finger is faster. Ain’t that right Sampson?” 

“That’s right boss” The other shadowy figure replied. 

Violet dropped to her knees. She was losing blood quickly. If she didn’t get help fast, she would die.

Nobody listened, and they kept their guns up and aimed at the two soldiers. “No way. We aren’t dropping our guns unless you drop yours” Clementine yelled toward the duo. She wasn’t backing down this time, no matter what. Not after what they did to Violet.

“Hmmm, that doesn’t sound like a very smart idea. I’m the one outnumbered here, so why the hell would I drop my weapon?”

“Then I guess we have a problem then” Clementine replied as she focused her aim on Ramirez’s head.

“Relax now, i’m not here to hurt you , sadly. If I was you would be dead by now. I’m just here to send a message. You see, I figured you guys were up to something, and sure enough you were. That girl over there was planning some sort of suicide mission huh?” Ramirez pointed his rifle to Violet who was now rolling on the ground, almost passed out from blood loss. “Now listen closely. Any plans you had of attacking us, forget about it. Because the next shot will be in the head. “ Ramirez crept back into the shadows. “Until next time kids….”

Everyone swiftly ran towards Violet. She was out, face as pale as a ghost. Ruby bent down and checked her pulse. “Oh thank god. She’s alive.” Everyone was relieved to hear that. “It looks like the bullet went clean through, I think that’s a good thing” Ruby added. 

Clementine quickly pulled the first aid kit she received from Johnson and threw it to the ground. She looked around for a place to patch Violet up, and noticed a fallen tree. “Lay her down over there. We have to stop the bleeding.” Ruby nodded and picked Violet up, gently setting her slender frame on the tree.

XXX

After a few hours of nervously waiting, Violet finally woke up to and array of familiar faces standing over her.

“Violet! Are you ok?” Louis asked, speaking for everyone.

Violet stood up almost instantly and took a deep breath. “I’m fine…. I think.” She lifted up her shirt, which was now stained in blood, to reveal stitching on her stomach and on her back where the bullet entered and exited. She turned towards Clementine. “I- I’m sorry Clem. You were right. Let’s just head to this New Frontier.”

Clementine’s face was filled with guilt as she looked at Violet. She couldn’t help but think this was her fault. She knew that there were people watching them. If she told the rest of the group would that change anything? Or would it just make things worse? Would it completely mess up the plan her and Johnson had? It didn’t matter now, because there was no turning back. It was just starting to seem like every decision Clementine made as of late ended up bad for the whole group. “It’s fine Vi- let’s just get moving. If you’re ready.” She just hoped the decision to go to the New Frontier wasn’t the wrong one as well.

“Yeah, i’m ready. What’s the way?”

Clementine paused and closed her eyes. What was the way? She tried to retrace her steps in her head. Where did she go from The New Frontier to end up here? It was a long journey, and one that she took mostly in a car. Now she had no car, and to make matters worse, one foot. The odds did not look to be in her favor at all.

Her only choice was to wing it and hope she could find some clues on the way. “North I think, come on, let’s go” the group hesitantly followed as Clem headed north, hoping that she knew where she was going.

XXX

1 week later…

A week passed and it seemed as if the group made no progress whatsoever to finding The New Frontier. Then again, there was no way they would know if they were close because none of them knew how to get there.

Clementine fixed the signature ballcap on her head. “I wish you were here Lee” she said under her breath as she swiftly kept moving forward, even on crutches. Usually when she was faced with a tough decision, she would think about how Lee would handle it. But as of late things were getting so tough that she was starting to think even he wouldn’t have an answer.

The group was on the move for the entire week, taking breaks only at night to eat and sleep, and get back on the move as soon as the sun rose. Clementine didn’t anticipate The New Frontier being so far away, but there was no turning back now. She wondered if they were still being tailed, which was the only way for this plan to work. No one in their right mind would walk for a week to follow a bunch of kids, so she concluded that it was unlikely.

“Are we there yet Clem? My legs hurt” Aj complained as he slowed down.

“I’m with you little guy, my legs are killing me.” Louis added on as he rested his arm on Clementine’s shoulder. “You think we can take a break now?”

Hearing the two boys complain seemed to piss Clementine off to no end for some reason. “Are you going to complain the whole time? Be happy that you have two feet, and use them. God!” 

“Jeez Clem, calm down. What’s wrong with you?” Louis asked, concerned for his girlfriend. She was getting more and more angry every day and he had no idea why.

“There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with me, asshole.”

“It’s gotta be something….. Is it like your…… you know, time?” Louis concluded that was the only reasonable answer to why she was acting so odd.

“Mind your fucking business Louis! And no it’s not, for your information”

“So why-” Louis was stopped by Ruby who grabbed him by his shoulder. 

“Let it go Louis, trust me. Yer gonna end up dead if you don’t.”

“Ummm i’m sorry but I did absolutely nothing wrong! But alright I guess. I would very much like to live long enough to see The New Frontier so i’ll shut up.”

“You won’t have to wait much longer” Clementine said as she smiled, relieved. In front of her was a sign that read “Richmond, Virginia : 1.7 Miles” “We made it.”

“Rich-mond? I thought we were going to The New Frontier?” Aj questioned.

“Yeah Aj, that’s where it is, we made it” Clementine’s happiness was quickly stopped by the sudden feeling of needing to throw up. She bent over to catch her breath, and let the feeling pass.

“Are you sure you’re feeling ok Clem?” Violet asked as she looked over to her friend, concerned.

“Yeah i’m fine. I’m just a little nauseous. But it doesn’t matter now, we have to keep moving forward. We’re almost there.” Clementine ignored the feeling and continued moving. Surprisingly enough, the trip came with a very small amount of walkers. A few here and there, but nothing that was a challenge.

Everyone silently continued walking, excited to finally reach their destination. After about another thirty minutes of walking, Clementine could see it. The new Frontier. “There it is.” It almost looked the same as it was years ago when she was there.

“About time, I was about to ask you to carry me there” Louis remarked as he chuckled. “Last one there is a rotten egg!” He yelled as he started running. He stopped as soon as he started when he realized nobody followed his lead. “You guys are no fun.”

“If I had both of my feet, I would have definitely beat you.” Clementine said as she continued down the road.

“Um you’re looking at the fastest runner in Ericson’s Boarding School! I’ll have you know I still hold the record for the fastest mile run, isn’t that right Vi?”

“Yeah because you’re the only one who actually did it” Violet added as she laughed.

“Hey! No need to add that part. And I challenge you to race me Violet, since you think you’re so fast.”

“Yeah, no. No thank you.”

“Exactly, so shut it slowpoke.”

“I bet I could beat you in a race!” Aj confidently yelled. “Clementine used to always race me, and she never beat me.” He looked to Clementine and stuck his tongue out. 

Clementine smiled, hiding the fact she let him win every time. “I want that rematch when I get a new foot, goofball.”

“Alright fine. But if I win, you can’t call me goofball anymore.”

“Deal. But you’re not gonna win, and I don’t think i’m gonna grow a new foot any time soon. Sorry goofball.”

Aj frowned. He hated that name. “How about this, if I beat Louis in a race then you have to stop calling me goofball. Deal?”

Clementine looked over to Louis. “Hmm, fine. Deal. Louis, you better not lose.”

“Come on Clem, have some faith in your boyfriend! Better yet, have some faith in the fastest man alive. Now let’s do this Aj.” The two of them lined up to each other. “Three-two-one Go!” The two of them took off. Louis had the clear advantage, and ended up leaving his fun sized opponent in the dust.

Aj stopped, giving up on catching up to Louis. He may have been lying about being the fastest man alive, but he definitely was a close contender. The both of them stopped and ran back towards the group. 

“No fair Clem! He cheated!” Aj argued.

“How did he cheat?” Clementine asked.

“Because… he just did ok! He’s a big stinky cheater. And i’m wayyyy faster than him.”

“Take it to the judge, goofball” Louis joked as he high-fived Clementine. “And i’m still undefeated.”  
“Alright, that’s enough guys. I think we made it.” Aasim said as he looked at the gates. He studied it for a second. The gate was heavily fortified, with the same insignia painted on the front that was on Clementine’s arm. “So, what now?”

“Now… we yell I guess. JAVI! JAVI! ARE YOU IN THERE? IS ANYBODY IN THERE?” Clementine yelled at the top of her lungs.

After a dozen more JAVI’s and a couple more ARE YOU IN THERE’s, someone finally responded. “Who are you people, and what do you want from The New Frontier?” A man from the watchtower on the top of the gate yelled.

“We’re looking for Javi-” Clementine stopped and looked closer at the man she was talking to. “Gabe? Is that you?”

“Clementine?” Upon realizing who it was, Gabe quickly opened the gate and met the group at the entrance. “Clementine….it’s been so long I thought you died.”

“Turns out i’m not so easy to kill. It’s good to see you Gabe.”

Gabe sized up his old friend, noticing the C+L charm around her neck before even noticing the missing foot. “You sure changed a lot.”

“I could say the same for you.” Time seemed to have done Gabe a service, he looked almost nothing like the Gabe Clementine once knew. The once nerdy and frail young boy looked to grow up into a respectable young man.

“Well if you don’t mind me asking, what are you, and all of these other people, doing here?”

“That’s a long story....but long story short our home was attacked. We were outnumbered and we couldn’t fight back, so we had to leave. And well, this was the only place I could think of that would be safe for my people.” Clementine explained as she looked back at everyone, who were all patiently waiting to be safe inside the walls.

“Jeez Clem, I don’t know if this place is much safer. To be honest it hasn’t been easy for us either. We just started rebuilding from a terrible attack a bunch of raiders planned out. We barely managed to draw them back, and they said they were going to be back. It’s been almost a month, so we’re hoping they changed their minds. But things are never that easy.”

Clementine grinned. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about those raiders anymore Gabe.”

“What do you mean? You dealt with them?”

“Yeah just about. They did the same thing to us, and they ended up paying for it. They won’t be a problem for anyone now.”

Gabe was overjoyed to hear that the threat was gone. “That’s great! Come on in Clem. I’ll bring you to Javi, he’ll definitely want to talk to you.” Clementine walked past the gates, and the rest of the group followed, only to be stopped by Gabe. “Ummm sorry, the rest of you guys have to go to quarantine. We have to check you guys for illness before you come in.”

“Javi’s still doing that?” Clementine wasn’t gonna argue, but it didn’t seem necessary.

“Well yeah, he decided that some of The New Frontier’s rules were still smart. We have to make sure no one is bringing in any diseases, or worse, bites.”

“Well I guess that’s understandable.” Clementine looked back to her group. “Go ahead guys, don’t worry. I trust these people.” Everyone quietly agreed, and were escorted to the quarantine.

“Just follow me Clem, Javi is in this building right over here.” Gabe looked down at Clementine’s foot. Or, lack of one to be precise. He didn’t want to be rude and say anything, but Clementine quickly noticed him staring.

“Caught you looking.”

“Oh! Sorry...if you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

“Well that’s another long story. But I was bit, and a friend saved my life by cutting off my foot before it was too late.”

Gabe was stunned to hear that Clementine managed to survive a walker bite. “I guess you are hard to kill, aren’t you?” Gabe opened the doors to a large apartment building and opened the doors. “Javi is in the room to the right. He’s going to be shocked to see you. Now, I have to get back on guard duty…. It was good talking to you Clementine.”

“You too Gabe” Clementine awkwardly replied as Gabe walked back outside. It was pretty clear that Gabe never got rid of the crush he had on Clementine even after all this time. It didn’t much matter to her though, she moved on from him a long time ago.

XXX

“Wow” Was all that could come out of Javier’s mouth as Clementine finished talking. She told him everything, from finding Aj, to wiping out Lily’s gang, then to losing her home. He thought he had it tough trying to run The New Frontier, but hearing Clementine’s story gave Javier a big reality check. He was living lavishly compared to her. He cleared his throat. “Jesus Clem, I heard stories about those fuckers getting wiped out by a bunch of kids, but I never thought it would be you. Then again, I should’ve known.” Javier knew that Clementine was no normal kid. If anyone could lead a bunch of kids to defeat an army that he could not, it was him. “We owe you big time for taking care of those sons of bitches, so you and your people are more than welcome to stay here.”

“Well actually, that’s not really what I had in mind” Clementine explained. “ I was actually hoping that maybe you could help us. Those soldiers, they took our home, our dog, shot my friend…. They’re insane. They have to be stopped. It’s only a matter of time before they come here next.”

Javier was hoping she wouldn’t say that. After Lily’s group attacked, The New Frontier was left in shambles. Dozens of people were killed and even more were kidnapped. Buildings were destroyed. Supplies were stolen. And Now Clementine was asking him to help her fight another war not even two months later? “Shit…. I don’t know Clementine. I don’t think my people are ready for another war, or even willing to fight one at that. I can offer you a place to stay, but I just don’t know about fighting. I’ve seen too many people die these past few months.”

“You’ll see many more people die if we don’t fight. That group is filled with maniacs and killers, they make those raiders look like a joke. I get you don’t want to fight, but either way you’ll have to. Please Javi, we need you. I need you.” Clementine knew that Javier would do what was right even if he was hesitant.

The ex - baseball player nervously shifted in his chair. It was looking like he couldn’t avoid this fight. “Fuck….. Alright fine. At least tell me you have a plan, because I sure as hell don’t. “

“Well, sorta. There’s someone in their group who said him and a few others will help me. He didn’t give me much info, but he said he would tell me when he had a plan.”

“Well that’s relieving, I guess. But what are we supposed to do until then? How long did he say it would take to figure out a plan?”

“I- I don’t know. All we can do for now is wait I guess. And get ready for a war.”

The two were interrupted by the doors swinging open violently. It was Gabe, with a look of terror on his face. “Dad! There’s men at the door! They’re threatening to attack unless we give them what they want!”

“Calm down Gabe. What did they look like?” Javier asked his young nephew.

“They’re Like Davi-.. dad was. Soldiers.”

“Fuck.”


	5. A New Life

“Hurry it up in there! It’s not polite to keep a guest waiting for this long you know. A few more minutes and i’m gonna have to let myself in!” Sanchez ordered as he aimed his rifle into the air and let off a couple shots. “Come on, I would hate to be rude but you’re giving me no other choice here!” Sanchez came with two humvees, both having all of the seats filled with his soldiers. The two humvees in fact tailed the Ericson survivors all the way to Richmond, arriving about ten minutes after they did. 

Javier quickly climbed up to the guardpost, rifle in hand. “What’s your business here?” he calmly asked the men.

“Jesus, that’s what you call an introduction? How rude. And here I was thinking we could be friends… but I guess not.”

“Those rifle shots didn’t seem too friendly to me. Now, are you going to tell me what you want or are you just here to waste my time?” 

“Why so serious man? But alright, if that’s how you want to be then fine. You can put down that gun, i’m not here for a fight. I’m sure those kiddies said some terrible things about me, don’t listen to them. In fact i’m just here to meet my new neighbors! I’m Sanchez, by the way.”

Javier examined the man. Something about him sparked a memory in his brain, a memory of his brother David. Maybe this man was a friend of his? It was likely, due to the fact that this man was dressed in full military uniform. The more he thought about it, the more restless he became. An entire army of David’s would be pretty hard to deal with, if not impossible. He just hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “I’m Javier. Is that all?”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Javier! It looks like you got quite the place hidden in those gates considering how fortified the place is.” Sanchez looked around the walls. The place was built like a fortress, it would take a lot of firepower to get inside. Firepower that he couldn’t afford to waste. “Not to be rude or anything, but you think you can open this gate? It sure is cold out here, I would like if we can talk somewhere nice and cozy inside these nice gates you got. How’s that sound?”

“No. We’re not opening the gates. We can talk here.” Even though Javier didn’t want a war on his hands, there was no way he was going to just let these assholes in. Especially after what Clementine told him about how insane and ruthless they were.

“Wow. Not very neighborly huh? Well that’s fine, not everyone is. I get it. But i’m sure my darling Clementine told you that i’m not really the kind of guy to say no to. You, see, I always have a plan b, and that plan b won’t end well for you at all.”

“I’m not opening the gates. Now tell me what you want, or go” Javier replied with a hint of aggression. 

“Not going to listen huh? Alright, fine. I’ll remember that. What we want is pretty simple really. We’ve been on the road for awfully long, and in doing so we’ve run awfully low on gas. So my friend Sanchez over there figured that our nice neighbors could spare us some. Seems pretty reasonable doesn’t it? And before you answer, just remember that you already told me no once. A second time and you’re pushing your luck.” 

Javier paused for a moment, weighing out his options. He could give them what they want and hope that they don’t come back for more, or he could say no, which would surely lead to a gunfight. He quickly decided that gas wasn’t worth bloodshed. “How much do you need?” The New Frontier didn’t have many vehicles anyways, so gas wasn’t much of a valuable resource for the community.

Sanchez stopped and scratched his head for a couple seconds, pondering how much he needed. “Hmm, how about twenty five gallons? These humvees need a lot of gas, and I got about seven more of these bad boys back at my base that need filling up too. Seems reasonable, doesn’t it?”

Javier’s eyes widened upon hearing this man's crazy request. Was he a madman? They had maybe five gallons for all of their vehicles, nowhere close to twenty five. “We- don’t have that much.”

“Jeez, seriously? I was being generous with twenty five. How much do you got then?”

“About five.”

Sanchez’s bursted out in laughter upon hearing Javier’s response. “Oh my lord!......... wait. Don’t tell me you’re serious? Javier’s face was enough of a response for the soldier. “You are serious! No way…..” Sanchez opened one of the doors to the humvees to tell his men. “Get a load of this guy, he told me he only has five fucking gallons! What a joke!” Everyone in the car joined their leader in laughter.

“We don’t have what you need then. So why don’t you guys get on out of here. If five gallons isn’t enough for you, then you’re doing a lot better than us.” 

Sanchez raised his finger. “Woah there pal, not so fast. If you don’t got what we need, then we’re gonna have to work something out, because we didn’t come all this way for a measly five gallons of gas. That rifle you got, it’s the same as mine. Military issued.”

Javier knew where this was going. “What about it?”

“Well i’m sure a place as fortified as this one at least has a lot of weapons and ammo. So maybe those five gallons, and some magazines and i’ll call it even. Oh, and throw in a meal for me why don’t you, i’m starving.”

At that moment Javier realized that Clementine wasn’t lying about a word she said. These people were monsters, and they had to be stopped. He contemplated opening fire on the dozen men standing below him, but he remembered what Clementine said. She had a plan with one of the soldiers, and he couldn’t risk killing whoever it was. Not to mention his people weren’t ready for a battle, not yet. Not that giving away precious ammo to the enemy would help much, but he didn’t have much choice it seemed. “Fine. But if I give you what you want, we have to make a deal.”

Sanchez smiled. “ I knew you’d come around, good on you for making the smart choice pal. Now i’m a reasonable man, so go ahead and tell me that deal.”

“I give you what you want, and you leave us alone. We’re a peaceful community, and we want to stay that way. Is that a deal?” Javier knew that they probably wouldn’t listen for long, but if it could at least buy his people enough time to prepare for war, then he had to try.

“You got it all wrong man! I’m not a bad guy. I don’t want to hurt you people, not at all. The thought of killing someone makes me sick” Sanchez said as he rubbed his stomach. “I think i’m gonna throw up now just by saying the word.”

“So does that mean we have a deal?” Javier asked once again.

“Of course we gotta deal! You’ll never see my face again, I promise you that. And i’m a man of my word, everyone knows that. Now, it’s your turn. Bring me my gas and my ammo. Oh and don’t forget that meal, or the deals off.”

Javier angrily climbed down the watchtower to see a large crowd gathered behind him, with Clementine and Gabe in the front. 

“Javi what are you doing? You can’t seriously be letting them take our stuff like that, are you? We can fight them!” Gabe cried as he reached for the gun in his waistband.

Javier stopped Gabe by grabbing his hand. “We will. I promise. Just not now. You have to trust me Gabe.”

“He’s right Gabe, we have a plan. They won’t get away with this for long” Clementine included trying to console Gabe. If she was the same person she was only a couple years ago, she would probably agree with Gabe. But Clementine had people important to her that she had to protect now, so she wasn’t going to throw her life away when she didn’t have to.

Gabe sighed. “Ok, I trust you Javi. Just don’t fuck this up.” It was clear to Clementine that Gabe still had a lot of growing up to do, or maybe she just grew up too fast. She couldn’t figure out which was the case.

XXX  
Javier opened up the gates with a duffel bag around his shoulder and a large gas canister in hand. He was surrounded by Gabe, Clementine, and two other men, All of them with guns ready. 

“Clementine! It’s nice to see you.” Sanchez happily yelled as he looked at the girl he knocked out only a week ago. 

Clementine simply responded with a middle finger.

“Nice to see you too, friend” Sanchez replied in his best impression of Clementine he could do, which sounded more like a chipmunk than a person.

Javier set down the duffel bag and the gas canister on the ground in front of his adversary. “Here. Now do your part of the deal, and leave. Forever.”

Sanchez picked up his supplies and threw them into the nearest humvee, then walked back to Javier and reached his hand out, looking for a handshake. Javier ignored the gesture and went to walk away.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” Sanchez threatened as he raised his gun at Javier’s head. “Unless you want to fuck up that deal.”

Javier sighed, turned around, and hesitantly shook Shanchez’s hand. 

“Good call.” Sanchez opened the door to his humvee and hopped inside, starting the car. “Oh and Clementine, Johnson says hi.” 

And with that the two humvees drove off, leaving Clementine on a cliffhanger as to what that meant for her plan. Now once again, she was questioning her decisions as a leader. It seemed that nothing she did worked out as of late. She only hoped that her plan could still work, even if Sanchez knew something was up. But sadly, hoping things would work out could only get you so far, and she knew that all too well.

Javier angrily walked back into the gates as they closed, and looked back towards Clementine who followed. “I just hope your plan works, Clementine. We’re all counting on it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Clementine shook her head as she went towards the quarantine to reunite with her group.

XXX

One Month Later…

“Clem! Clem! Where are you?” Aj nervously called out in the darkness. Clementine couldn’t see him at all, using his screams of terror to guide her to him. She had to find him. That’s all that mattered.

“Aj! I’m coming! Follow my voice!”

Aj continued to yell for his post- apocalyptic caretaker, but every yell seemed to get further further away. Clementine continued to move as fast as she could on her crutches, trying to catch up. 

“Clem! Please! They’re coming!” Aj’s voice rang through Clementine’s head, haunting her mind as she pushed forward in the darkness. Then all of the sudden, Silence. No more yelling from Aj, no noise whatsoever. Just complete darkness, and the rhythm of Clementine’s heart pounding out of her chest. 

“Aj?....... Aj? Aj please! Where are you?!” Clementine continued moving forward into the seemingly endless void, without any sort of response. She feared the worst. If someone hurt Aj, they were going to pay.

Clementine froze to see a figure slowly approach her. “Aj…….?” The figure was the size of a grown man, there was no way it was Aj. A light appeared next to the figure, revealing a burn mark on the figure’s cheek.

It was Ramirez.

Clementine quickly dropped one of her crutches and drew her pistol almost instantly. “What did you do?! Where the fuck is Aj?” She was seconds away from pulling the trigger, but she had to know where Aj was first.

“You mean the little squirt?..... Well I could tell you, but you won’t want to hear it” Ramirez replied, as he let out a menacing chuckle.

Tears rolled down Clementine’s cheeks. That was all she needed to hear. Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger, hitting Ramirez clean in the head. Then again, and again, and again, until she was out of ammo in her clip. She felt absolutely nothing upon killing the man, if he could even be called that.

Clementine quickly continued moving, looking for Aj, but it was so dark that she couldn’t see a thing. She wasn’t about to give up though, and continued moving. “Aj?” She asked again, only to be met with silence once more.

After a few minutes of silence, it was finally broken by a low growl coming from right under Clementine’s feet. “Aj?” Clementine looked down, to see Aj, but it wasn’t the Aj she was looking for.  
He was turned.

Clementine let out a terrified scream, nearly shooting up out of her bed. She let out a sigh of relief. It was all a dream. She looked to her right, to see Aj snuggled in the blanket of the queen sized bed they were sharing, with Louis layed out right next to him. They were both sound asleep.

Clementine took a deep breath and wiped her forehead. She was sweating bullets. It has been a month since they moved into The New Frontier, and there hasn’t been a night where she didn’t have a nightmare. To make things worse, each nightmare involved someone she loved getting killed. Whether it’d be Aj, or Louis, or even Lee, every single one of them felt terrifyingly real to her. It got to the point where she feared going to sleep, ending up awake and alone most nights. She wanted to wake up Louis or Aj to have someone to keep her company, but she didn’t want to be a bother so she left them alone to rest.

Clementine slowly got up and grabbed her crutches, and walked out to the balcony of the 10 story apartment. Javier gave all of the Ericson survivors a few rooms to share there. It wasn’t much, but it was a lot better than being outside the walls. She picked up her hat, and examined it, reminiscing on old times. After all these years, her hat was all she had as a memory of who she was before. Whenever Clementine was feeling nervous, she would look at her hat. Usually it would bring her a sense of calmness, but as of late, not so much. She had too much on her mind, something as simple as a hat could not put her at ease.

“Bad dreams again?” A familiar voice asked from behind Clementine as he stood next to her on the balcony. Louis comfortingly put his arm around her and looked up to the night sky. He moved his hand towards Clementine’s heart, which was racing at the speed of light.

“Yeah” Clementine replied as she rested her head on Louis’ shoulder. She didn’t say it, but she was very relieved that he woke up. She always tried to act tough, but deep down Clementine needed someone there for her, someone to tell her everything would be okay.

“Well, I did too, if that helps at all. Not sure how that would help, but at least you’re not alone right?”

Clementine shifted her worry to Louis. “Same one again?”

“Yep.” Louis continued having recurring nightmares every night of the woman he killed during the attack on Lily’s raiders. It was his first time ever taking another human life, and he was hoping it would be his last. The kill absolutely traumatized him, and no matter what he did, the woman’s face still remained in the back of his mind, haunting him. 

Clementine slowly rubbed Louis’ back, trying to calm him down. For her, the idea of taking one's life was so casual, that she could kill someone and not even think twice about it. It was just a part of surviving. Louis was the complete opposite though, killing was just something he couldn’t do. Not if the life he was taking was still human. He didn’t even like killing animals unless he truly had to. That’s what Clementine loved about him though. In a world built for murderers and monsters, Louis was a truly good person inside and out, and she made herself a promise to protect his humanity, no matter what it took.

The pair stood quietly and looked up at the stars, admiring each other's presence. “It’s been so long since i’ve looked at the stars.” Clementine said as she studied each constellation one by one in the beautiful night sky. The sky was perfect for stargazing, a dark bluish purple, complete with crescent moon in the sky almost recreating Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. “I think the last time I actually stargazed was when I was a kid, in my treehouse. I used to do that every night.” 

Louis widened his eyes in surprise.“Really? Back at the school I would be lost in the stars every night whenever I was on watch duty. You’re telling me you never even looked up at them?”

“Yes, really. I used to love stargazing. Anytime my parents made me mad, I would just go outside in my treehouse and watch the stars all night. I did it so much that I memorized every constellation, and their names.”

“Oh really? How about a quiz then? Louis pointed to a random star pattern in the sky. “What’s that one called?” 

“Easy. That’s the big dipper” Clementine confidently replied.

“Ok smarty pants. Next question, what about the one below it?”

“The little dipper, obviously. Come on, give me a hard one.”

“Ummmm, well… how about that one?” Louis pointed at another random pattern in the night sky, not knowing at all what it’s name was.

This question stumped Clementine. She had no clue what it was. “I-...don’t know. I guess i’m a little rusty after all these years.”

“Wow, and here I thought you were some kinda astrologist. And you don’t even know that one? Wowww.”

“Ok Louis, what is it then?”

Louis stopped and made a nervous face, that confirmed he had no idea what it was. 

“See! You don’t know either so you shouldn’t be talking.”

Louis tried to defend himself. “I do so know that one! It’s umm….. The medium dipper?”

Clementine couldn’t help herself, and started laughing hysterically, so hard she lost her balance and fell off her crutches, tumbling to the floor. Karma sure was a bitch.

Louis hesitantly helped her back to her crutches, holding back his laughter. “I can’t lie, that one you deserved.”

“Maybe.” Clementine agreed as she chuckled. Her laughter was quickly cut off by a sudden sharp cramp in her stomach. “Ow!”

“What’s wrong?” Louis asked.

“It’s just a cramp.”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “Again?” This was about the third day in a row that Clementine had been feeling stomach pain and nausea. It would come and go, but it always seemed to come back stronger every few days or so. “How long have you been feeling like that?”

“Ever since we left the school. Every time I think it’s gone, it just comes right back. I have no clue why either.”

“Isn’t there a doctor here?” Louis asked. Clementine nodded. “Well, I think you should go see them in the morning, because that needs to be checked out.” Clementine responded with a shrug.

“I guess so.” She was getting used to ignoring it, but maybe it was smart to look for an expert opinion. Especially with a battle coming at any moment. There were already enough things to worry about, and this had to be dealt with before it became another problem.

“Alright, good. Now, I think we should get back to sleep.” Louis walked back into their bed and layed down. Clementine did the same, since once Louis woke up she felt a wave of calmness hit her body, and she was all of the sudden extremely tired.

“Clem?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too” Clementine replied without hesitation as she smiled. No matter what happened now, as long as she had Louis and Aj by her side, Clementine was happy. Somehow, against all the odds, she truly found the people she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

XXX

“So, this has been happening for about a month then?” Eleanor asked her newest patient. Once a stranger to The New Frontier, the young asian woman now served as the communities only doctor, and has been happily shouldering the burden of caring for so many people by herself since then. Helping people was almost second nature for her, and even though she was busy almost everyday, she never complained because she knew that she was serving a purpose bigger than herself.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s kind of hard to keep track of time on the road, but I think it’s been about a month” Clementine nervously replied as she sat up on the bed inside of the hospital room. She was just hoping nothing too serious was wrong with her, she already has enough to deal with the struggles of being an amputee.

Eleanor’s eyes widened a bit. The pieces were starting to come together. “One more question, this might be a little personal. Have you had any sort of… sexual activity in the recent past? Maybe within the past couple months?”

Clementine paused for a second, quickly thinking back to her and Louis’ anniversary. “Yes, I did once. It was like a month ago, i think. Why do you want to know that anyways?”

Eleanor’s eyes widened even more upon hearing this. “Well, i’m just trying to consider every option.” She just about had her diagnosis, but she had to be sure. She quickly got up and opened one of the drawers at her desk, searching until she found a small white device, then walked back down and handed it to Clementine. “Alright Clem, I need you to go to the bathroom and pee on the end of this, and come back. It’s just a test, don’t worry.”

“Um, ok I guess…” Clementine took the device and motioned towards the nearest bathroom. She emerged a few minutes later with a worried look on her face. The device revealed two lines, which according to the side of it meant that the test was positive. Positive for what, it didn’t say. “It says it’s positive, is that a bad thing?”

Eleanor cleared her throat and tried to think of the best explanation. “Well… that’s up for you to decide I guess.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Clementine asked as she frowned. Eleanor was doing a very bad job reassuring her, that was for sure.

“Well…... i’m just going to be straight forward I guess. You’re pregnant.” 

Clementine’s heart became racing as her body quickly went into panic mode. “Wha-......pregnant?” Thousands of questions flew through her mind in an instant. What could she do? Could she really have a kid right now? Would she even be able to care for one? There were too many questions, and not enough answers.

Eleanor quickly noticed Clementine’s distress and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Listen, just stay calm, ok? I get it, it’s a big deal, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad thing ok?”

Eleanor’s reassurance didn’t help much at all, because all Clementine was thinking was how this was indeed a very bad thing. “Not a bad thing? I can’t have a kid!” There was too much happening as of late, and all Clementine could think of was how to keep Aj safe from all of it. But now, she would have two children on her hands to worry about? The thought just didn’t sit well with the young woman.

“I’m sorry Clementine. I- I don’t know what to say. If it helps, I think you would be a great mother. A-and i’m sure you’re not alone in this!” She looked down to Clementine’s necklace. Whoever that L is…. Is he still with you?”

“Louis. And yeah, he is.” Clementine quickly remembered that she wasn’t the only one this was going to effect. How was she going to tell Louis? If she was panicking, she could only imagine how Louis would react.

“Well there you go, you aren’t alone then are you? You’ll have him to help you every step of the way.” Considering how young Clementine is, Eleanor completely understood why Clementine was panicking. She was barely grown up herself, and now she had another life coming soon that she had to care for. It was only normal for her to be scared, no matter how tough she was.

“That’s not even the problem!” Clementine explained as she tried to control her breathing and calm down. “On any day, we’re gonna have to go fight to get our home back. I can’t have this to deal with now too!” 

The timing was terrible to say the least. Clementine and the group were on standby for the past month, waiting for Johnson to arrive and say he had a plan. Even though it was starting to seem like Johnson was never going to come, nobody gave up hope. They were all ready for the time to come when they would attack to retake the school, especially Clementine. But now with the new news at hand, it seemed there may be more important things for her to worry about.

Eleanor tried to figure out how to reassure her, but nothing came to mind. She had to admit, Clementine was in a very tough situation. “I get it, but you shouldn’t be fighting. Not with that baby inside of you.”

Clementine looked up to Eleanor with a face of sadness and confusion that completely explained how she was feeling. Lost. For the first time in a while, she had no idea what to do. Clementine always seemed to find an answer to every problem, but with this one she was stumped. “What do I do?” She asked, as a lone tear rolled down her cheek.

Eleanor was just about as lost as Clementine was. She had no idea what to tell this poor girl. “I- I….. you need to talk to Louis. This kid is just as much his as it is yours, so that’s the first thing you should do. After that…. I don’t know. You and him are going to have to decide that yourselves, I can’t help you there. All I can do is help you give birth, when that time comes. I’m sorry, I wish there was something more I could say that would help. Just, try to relax ok? That stress could affect the baby.”

Clementine knew she was right. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

She opened her eyes and slowly got up out of bed, grabbed her crutches, and stood up. “Thanks Eleanor” Clementine said before walking out of the room and going back outside. Now was the time to talk to Louis. She still didn’t know how she was going to tell him or how he’d react, but he had to know.


	6. Inseparable

“Louis, i’m pregnant.” No way, that would be too direct.

“Louis,you’re going to be a father.” Not that either.

Clementine tried to rehearse what she was going to tell Louis as she stood outside the door to the small apartment room, but none of them sounded right to her. “Fuck it” she quietly said under her breath as she opened the door. 

As soon as the doors opened, Clementine was immediately greeted by a smiling Aj and a very concerned Louis behind him.

“Clem! Where were you? I was worried, you know.” Aj said as he hugged his young caretaker. 

“Don’t worry Aj, i’m fine. I was at the doctor, for my….. foot” Clementine replied, thinking of an excuse on the spot. She didn’t even think about how she was going to tell Aj, so she figured it was best to wait for now.

“Really?! Are you getting a new foot?” Aj excitingly asked. Even though he saved Clementine’s life by cutting off her foot, he still felt bad when he saw how much she had to struggle sometimes.

“I wish, but sadly, no. Not yet at least.” Clementine glanced over to Louis. “Can I talk to you, outside?”

“Um sure.” Louis followed Clementine to the porch. 

The two were quickly stopped by Aj, who grabbed Clementine’s arm. “Hey, i’m coming too!”

“No you aren’t, just stay here. This is a grown up conversation, sorry goofball.” Clementine knew that wasn’t going to be enough to stop him, he was way too nosy and persistent to just listen to her and mind his business.

“That’s not fair! You guys aren’t even grown ups, so why can’t I hear? I’m as much of a grown up as you are Clem.” Aj wasn’t going to give up now, Clementine telling him no just made him want to hear even more.

“Aj, no. Just wait here and maybe i’ll tell you later.”

Aj crossed his arms in anger and let out a sigh. “Fine, whatever. I don’t care anymore anyways, you guys just want to do kissing stuff.” Clementine would normally argue after hearing that, but she had more important things to worry about. The two finally went outside to the porch, and closed the door so Aj couldn’t hear.

“So, how did it go?” Louis asked, although he was already fearing the worst considering Clementine didn’t want Aj hearing. 

Clementine stayed quiet and looked down, only making Louis’ anxiety even worse. “Come on Clem, don’t leave me in the dark here. What did the doctor tell you?”

“I-...... i’m…. Pregnant.” Clementine couldn’t think of a smoother way to say it, so she just went with the direct approach. Maybe the direct approach wasn’t the best option though, judging from the terrified look on Louis’ face.

The duo just stood for a minute in silence, both speechless that they were really having a kid on the way. Telling Louis didn’t make things easier at all, if anything things were now even more confusing.

“The baby’s mine though, right?” Was the first question that came to Louis’ mind.

“Of course stupid! Why would you even ask that?”

“Sorry, that was kind of a dumb question……” 

Silence once again.

“Clem…… this is…. crazy.”

“I know.”

Louis walked to the porch door. “I-i’m sorry. I think I need some time. To think about this.” He opened the door of the porch to see Aj standing at the door smiling ear to ear. Louis looked to the left and quickly noticed there was a window right next to the porch door, which was wide open for Aj to hear everything. 

Aj quickly ran past Louis and right to Clementine. “Clem! You’re having a baby? Why didn’t you want to tell me?”

“Wha-? How did you know?”

“You left the window open” Aj explained as he happily pointed to the window. “But that doesn’t matter, you’re having a baby! That’s so cool!” Aj’s mind was racing with thoughts of having a new kid to hang out with and how fun it would be.

Clementine could only wish that she had the same positive outlook on everything as Aj did. He clearly didn’t see all of the problems that came with having a child, but she didn’t blame him. He was just a kid after all. 

“I don’t know….” Clementine responded as she continued to look down. 

This confused Aj to no end. “Why are you sad? Having a baby is a good thing. Isn’t it?”

“I- I don’t know. I don’t think I can take care of a kid, Aj. I don’t want to bring a kid into this world just to put him in danger all the time.” 

“Nuh uh, stop lying Clem, You’re a great mom! You’re the best mom! And if you need help, I can help you. Please, don’t be sad. Be happy!”

Clementine couldn’t help but smile. “Come here goofball.” Aj ran up to Clementine and she embraced him warmly as tears rolled down her cheeks. Aj always seemed to find a way to make Clementie smile, even on the worst days. “Thank you.” Clementine sincerely said as she let Aj go from the tight hug.

“Wait. So if you’re having a baby, does that mean i’m gonna be a big brother?” Aj ecstatically asked.

“Of course you are.” Technically he wasn’t, but Clementine wasn’t going to say that. Plus, after everything the two have been through, Clementine seen Aj as her child as much as the one growing inside of her. When she really thought about it, having a child was nothing new to her.

“That’s so cool! Am i going to have a brother or a sister?”

“I don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait until it’s born.”

Aj frowned. “How long is that gonna take?”

“Well, i’m not sure. Probably around nine months though.”

“What? That’s forever!” Aj was guessing that the baby would come in a couple days, or at most a week. But nine months? That’s way too long. “Can’t you make the baby come faster?”

“No, I can’t sadly. It takes those nine months for the baby to grow. If it comes out earlier there could be something wrong with it” Clementine explained as she laughed. 

Aj looked back into the apartment at Louis, who was sitting with his hands covering his face. “Why is Louis being so weird? He should be happy too.”

Clementine looked towards Louis and frowned. He was taking it about as bad as she expected he would. As much as he tried to act all smooth and carefree, he didn’t take big news very well.  
“He’s just scared, Aj. Give him some time, he’ll be ok.”

“Scared? What’s so scary about a baby?”  
“Well, I don’t think he’s scared OF the baby. He’s scared for the baby, that the baby won’t be safe. This world isn’t exactly the kind of world to raise a kid in. Or maybe he’s just not ready to be a dad.” Clementine was hoping he would be ready soon, because she definitely couldn’t do it alone.

Aj scratched his head and looked back to Clementine. He still had one question that was lingering in his head. “Clem, how are babies made?”

Clementine sighed. She knew it was only a matter of time until he asked that. “Well….when two people love each other a lot, it just….happens.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“Yup. Just like magic.” Clementine tried to maintain a serious face to keep Aj from calling her bluff, but it was pretty hard with the young boy standing next to her with an innocent smile, gullibly believing everything she told him.

“Wow that’s awesome! Can I have a baby too then?”

Clementine chuckled and rolled her eyes. That one definitely backfired. “No, you have to be older to have a baby.” She looked back over to Louis. Parenting is a team effort, so she was going to have to talk to him. “How about we go talk to Louis?” Aj nodded and they both went inside, sitting next to Louis who was still sitting with his hands over his face. He was clearly stressed out.

“Louis? Are you ok? Can we… talk?” Clementine asked. Louis looked up at her with a face of sadness and guilt, and eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry Clem. I should’ve never even brought up that idea on our anniversary. This is all my fault…” Louis could only see the news in a bad way. He didn’t think he could be a good father at all, nor did he think he deserved to be one. But now he didn’t have any choice, and the thought that he would be responsible for a kid was messing with his head.

Clementine comfortingly placed her hand on Louis’ cheek, lightly caressing his face and wiping the tears as they rolled down from his eyes. “Stop it. It’s not your fault. No one could have expected this to happen.”

“Well it happened! And now what are we going to do?” It was funny that Louis asked that, because Clementine came to him hoping he would have the answers to that question. But it seemed like they were both just as lost as the other in what they should do.

Clementine closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to think of the best answer to that question. She opened her eyes and looked over to Aj, who silently watched with a very confused look on his face. To him it was crazy how two people could be in so much distress after finding out they’re having a child. 

“What we’re gonna do is take care of this kid. I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure he or she has the greatest life they could possibly have. What’s done is done Louis. We have to take responsibility for our actions” Clementine confidently explained to Louis, even though she wasn’t sure she was even ready to do what she was saying she’d do.

Louis still wasn’t convinced that he was capable. “I can’t be a dad! Are you kidding? I - I just can’t. I’m the least qualified dad in the world.”

“That’s not true! You’ll be a great dad, I know it. Please, don’t just give up. I can’t do this without you.” Clementine grabbed Louis by his chin and forced his gaze straight to her. “There’s no one in the world i’d rather be with. We can do this, together. I know we can.”

“I do-” Louis’ response was quickly cut off by Clementine’s lips pressed against his. The two remained in this position for a few seconds until the moment was completely ruined by Aj, who stood up and yelled “Ew! Gross!”

The two almost instantly parted lips, quickly reminded of Aj’s presence in the room. “Sorry Aj. I forgot you were in here.” It was understandable that Clementine forgot he was there, considering how unusually quiet the talkative boy was.

“You guys are so gross” Aj said as he made a disgusted face and opened the door to the apartment. “I’m gonna go hang out with other people that don’t kiss each other all day.”

“Alright, have fun.” Clementine was secretly happy that Aj was leaving the room, so she could actually have a private conversation with Louis without him being nosy the entire time.

Louis looked to Aj as he walked out of the apartment and back to Clementine. “Maybe you’re right Clem. Maybe we can give this parenting thing a shot. What’s the worst that can happen? Well other than the baby dying-” Louis stopped when he noticed a very nasty glare on Clementine’s face. “Ok i’ll shut up now.”

Clementine’s stare of death quickly transformed into a half smile. “Yeah, that's a good idea.”

Louis only kept true to his word for about two seconds, before opening his mouth back up again. “Louis- proud father. Nope. That still doesn’t sound right.”

“It sounds perfect to me.” Clementine smiled and held one of the boy’s hands, wrapping her fingers between his. “How about Clementine - proud mother?”

“Well that’s nothing new. Everyone sees Aj as your kid already, now you’ll just have two to take care of. Sounds fun, right?” Louis sarcastically remarked.

“Yeah, sounds great. “ She replied, equally as sarcastic as him. “You know, with this foot, and now a kid, I think i’m going to accept my fate as a stay at home mom. How does that sound?”

Louis almost laughed at how crazy that sounded. Clementine was the polar opposite of a stay at home mom, that was for sure. “I think i’m closer to the stay at home mom here than you are to be honest.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong.” Clementine chuckled at the honesty in that statement. She could almost see it already, her teaching the kid how to shoot and survive, while Louis teaches the kid to play the piano.

“I know it’s a little early, but do you have any ideas for names?” 

“Well that depends on the gender, Louis.”

“Well, what if it’s a boy? I think Louis junior wouldn’t be too bad” Louis suggested as he grinned.

“No way, I already have a name if it’s a boy.”

“Oh really, and what’s that?”

Clementine looked up to the ceiling, closed her eyes, and smiled. “Lee.”

Louis already knew who Lee was and how much he meant to Clementine, so he wasn’t going to argue. “Well, Lee is a good name I guess. But if it’s a girl i’m picking out the name. Deal?”

Clementine shrugged her shoulders. “I guess, but it’d better be a good name.” 

The two’s name brainstorming was abruptly brought to a close by Gabe, who quickly opened the door to the apartment without knocking. “Clem! That Johnson guy, he’s here. He said that his plan is ready and he needs to talk to you about it right now.”

“Well, that’s some great timing. Way to ruin the moment, Johnson” Louis said as he got up and followed Clementine out the door. After all the waiting, it was finally time to act. All Clementine could think of as she walked outside was that Sanchez was going to pay. No one crosses Clementine, or her group, and gets away with it. No one.


	7. A Plan

Johnson stood outside the gate alone, patiently waiting for Clementine to arrive. His hands started to tremble as he thought about what he was doing. Was he really going to betray his group, everyone who had his back for so many years, for a bunch of kids? Something deep inside of him didn’t want to, but his conscience was telling him to help them, and that took power over his loyalty to Sanchez.

The sun slowly descended out of view in the horizon, creating a beautiful pink sky that looked like something out of a movie. The beautiful sunset meant the complete opposite for Johnson though, as he had to be back at his camp before sundown in order to stick to his cover story that he was scouting the area for gas. He told Sanchez that he wouldn’t be but a couple hours, and he was already late.

After a few minutes of waiting and enjoying the skyline, The large gate to the New Frontier slowly opened, revealing Clementine on the opposite side, with AJ, Louis, Gabe, and Javier next to her. They all sported serious looks on their faces, like they were all ready for what was coming. But in truth, none of them were ready for the plan to come. Not for a longshot.

Johnson focused his attention on Clementine, almost ignoring everyone else’s presence. “Clementine. It’s good to see you again.” The soldier gave her a welcoming nod. “But i’m sure you’re not here for pleasantries. Let’s get down to business then. The plan. You ready?”

Clementine’s heart went from a slow, steady, and calm beat, to a rapid beat as her nerves heightened anticipating the plan that could mean life or death for her, or any one of her friends. “Yeah, let’s hear it.”

“Well, I talked to some of the people in the group that I trust, and they agreed with me. It was only a matter of time before we parted ways with Sanchez and his gang of criminals. You guys just gave us a reason to finally do it. But even with us, we wouldn’t stand a chance with a frontal assault. But a battle from the inside, that’s a different story. That’s where you guys come in. You see, there’s space in my humvee for three more people. Whoever is coming with me, you have to be ready, because, simply put, for my plan you’re going to be captured.”

Louis let out a nervous laugh as sweat dripped down from his forehead. “You… you’re kidding right? You want us to get captured?”

Johnson’s face was completely serious as he turned over to Louis. “I wouldn’t waste my time coming here to tell you jokes. That’s the only way that this will work.”

Louis swallowed as he wiped the sweat off of his face. He didn’t like his odds at surviving if he was in the custody of a bunch of murderous psychopaths. He already had to go through that once, he didn’t want to do it again. “Are you sure about this?”

“Trust me kid. I’m a soldier. If there’s anything i’m good at, it’s planning for a battle. I’ve ran through this in my head over and over these past months. I wouldn’t put you guys in danger like this if I didn’t think this was the only way. But it is the only way. Simple as that.” Johnson kept it as blunt as possible because he didn’t have much time.

“So, we get captured, and then what? How is that going to help us get our home back?” Clementine sternly asked. She wasn’t convinced with this plan either, it seemed like too much of a risk to her. Not so much for her, but for the unborn baby inside of her. The baby wasn’t even born yet, and her maternal instincts were already kicking in.

“Well I was getting to that. You guys get captured. Then from the inside, you create a ruckus, anything you can do to cause a big distraction. It’s gotta be a big one though, because while y'all doing that i’m going to be planting explosives on every one of the humvees in Sanchez’s possession. Now, the rest of your people have to be waiting close by from the school, close enough for you to see me at the gate, because when I give the signal they will have to attack. Now Sanchez and friends will have two things to worry about from two different directions, which gives me and my friends the perfect chance to attack from the inside. Once we gain the upper hand, we break the three locked up out, we let the rest of your people in, and we fight. Hopefully, if everything works out like i’m planning it will, Sanchez and the survivors will be forced to retreat. Once they try that, my c4 goes off, and they all go up in flames. The end.” Johnson cleared his throat as he finished his elaborate plan for rebellion. “Any questions?”

Clementine calmly nodded as she listened to the scheme. It was risky, but she had to admit it was pretty smart. She could actually see it working, even if it would definitely get messy. She just hoped that it would only get messy for the other side, and not hers. “No, we’re ready.”

Johnson nodded. “All right then. Who’s coming with me then?”

Clementine hobbled forward on her crutches, ready for anything. “I’ll go with you.”

Louis stepped forward as well, and grabbed Clementine’s arm. “No way. You’re not going.” He wasn’t about to let her get put in danger, not with his child sleeping peacefully inside of her. “I’ll go.” His heart was racing, and his mind was telling him not to, but he fought the fear inside of him with the love he had for Clementine. He knew that it was time for him to man up.

“Louis-.... No. I should go” Clementine pleaded. She didn’t want Louis to be in danger. If something went wrong and he ended up dead, it would be the one that finally breaks her.

“No!” Louis yelled. “It’s not your choice anymore Clem. Your life isn’t the only one at risk now.”

Clementine sighed and shook her head. Louis was right. As much as she wanted to fight with her friends, she didn’t want to risk anything happening to her baby. “You’re right. I’m sorry, that was selfish.”

“Yeah Clementine, I think Louis is right. Without two feet, you’re just putting yourself at risk, and potentially ruining the plan. If you want to help, you’d be better off waiting on the outside with the rest of your group. Even then it’s a risk, but that’s up to you” Johnson chimed in. He didn’t want to be rude,but Clementine joining in on the plan with her disadvantages would probably slow everyone else down. If they wanted this plan to work, that was a risk they couldn’t afford to take. “Alright, so that’s one person. Who else is coming with me?”

“I’m going.” Clementine and the others turned around, to see Violet, with a look of determination. “I wanted to fight them in the first place, so i’ll be damned if i’m not in the front lines for this one.”  
Violet briskly walked next to Louis. She was ready to kill. No questions asked. The months since she lost her home, all that she could think about was getting her revenge.

Johnson nodded once more. “Alright that’s two. Who’s our last prisoner?”

Aj stepped forward. “I’m gonna go.” He was almost instantly stopped by Clementine, who’s face quickly turned to concern.

“No Aj. You’re staying with me. I’m not letting you leave my side.” She knew that Aj would probably volunteer, but she wasn’t going to let that happen.

Aj’s eyes widened as he frowned. “But, I can help!”

“You can help.” Clementine grabbed Aj by his chin and looked down to him. “I need someone very brave who can protect me you know…”

Clementine saying that quickly gave Aj a new mission. He wanted to help take back the school, but he wanted to protect Clementine much more. “Fine… I’ll stay with you. But i’m only doing it for my little brother, we have to make sure he’s safe.

Violet cocked her head sideways in confusion. “Little brother? What are you talking about Aj?”

Clementine went to stop Aj from spilling the news, but it was too late. “Oh, Clementine is having a baby! We have to keep her safe so the baby can turn out ok.”

Clementine shook her head. Aj was such a loudmouth. She didn’t want to tell anybody about the baby, not at least until after the fight was over and everyone settled down. Everyone worried about her enough because of her missing foot, she didn’t want more reasons for people to be worried about her. 

“Clementine! You’re having a baby?” Violet asked as she quickly approached her friend.

Clementine paused for a second. There was no use hiding it now. “.....yes.”

Violet’s jaw dropped. She was completely speechless. “Oh my god….is the father…?” She looked over to Louis. His tomato face gave her the answer. “Holy shit….. why didn’t you tell me?”  
“I- I just found out myself” Clementine explained. She wasn’t lying, this news was still very new to her as well.

“You can’t go then. Are you crazy?” Violet was stunned that Clementine was going through with taking part in the attack, putting her unborn child’s life in danger.

Clementine wasn’t going to budge, though. “I’m going. It’s final.”

“Don’t worry Violet, i’ll protect Clem. I promise” Aj reassured as he put his pinky out to Violet in a gesture to seal the promise. 

Violet sighed and interlocked pinkies with the young boy. “Fine… but you better not break that promise. I want to see what that baby looks like.”

Clementine smiled. Aj was truly the greatest big brother for her child that she could ask for.  
“Don’t worry so much Aj. I’ll be fine.”

“Hey uh, sorry to ruin this little moment, but i’m kind of running on a time limit here. Who’s coming with me?

Aasim walked out of the crowd that was forming at the gate. “I’ll come…..I can’t leave Violet and Louis alone with each other, or Louis will end up dead for sure.” He approached Louis. “I never thought i’d see the day that I would hear that you’re going to be a father. Congratulations man.”

Louis smiled. This meant a lot to him, considering how much him and Aasim didn’t get along. “Thanks Aasim.”

Johnson quickly snapped his fingers to draw attention back to him. “Alright guys. We got everyone. It’s time. The rest of you are going to have to follow us in your own car. I’m sure there’s one here. Just stay a good distance away from us, we can’t make this obvious or the whole plan is ruined. Oh, and i’d suggest you guys bring as much firepower as possible.” Johnson opened the driver’s seat to the humvee, and unlocked the doors. Violet and Aasim followed without any hesitation and entered the back seats.

Louis stopped, and turned around to face Clementine. Tears were starting to form out of the corners of her eyes. Louis opened his arms up, and Clementine immediately dropped her crutches to wrap Louis into a tight embrace. “I’ll be ok Clementine, don’t worry about me. Just keep that baby safe for me okay?” Louis gently placed his hand on Clementine’s stomach. He still couldn’t believe he was going to be a father, that there was a little version of him growing up as he spoke. All that he knew now was he had to protect it, no matter what he had to do.

Louis kissed Clementine softly on the forehead and walked into the humvee. There was no going back now. Without warning, the humvee drove off.

Tears rolled down Clementine’s cheeks as she watched her lover leave. “I… love you Louis.”

Javier approached Clementine. He was silently watching the entire time, and it was clear that she needed his help. “Clementine…. I had no idea…. I’ll help you in any way you can.” There was a lot more to be said, but sadly there was no time.

“Well… I could use a car. And some guns.”

“Jeez….. We’re on a short supply of ammo and gas… but I got you. You owe me one, though.” 

XXX

Javier drove a cherry red minivan with Gabe towards the gate, where Clementine and Aj waited along with Ruby, Willy, and Omar. 

“Well, here you go. There’s not much gas, but it should be able to get you where you want to go. And the weapons are in the trunk, we gave you as much as we can.” Javier explained as he rolled down the window. “But that’s not it….. Me and Gabe talked it over and we decided that we’re gonna come with you. There’s just enough space in the minivan for us, and it sure looks like you could use the help.”

Clementine wasn’t going to argue there, they definitely needed the help. “Thank you, Javi. Really.”

Javier smiled as he unlocked the doors to the car. “Don’t thank me, it was Gabe who talked me into doing it. Ain’t that right Gabe?” Javier looked to the passenger seat to see Gabe blush and look down to the floor.

“Y-yeah. We couldn’t just leave you guys to fend for yourself, we had to do something.” Gabe was mostly concerned about Clementine, the crush he had for her years ago still lingering in his mind. 

Clementine gave another thank you to Gabe and entered the minivan, followed by the rest of her group. Without any extra conversation, Javier drove off. “Lead the way Clem, I have no idea where this school is.”

Clementine pointed to a long street on the right side, which was covered by forest on both sides. “It’s that way. And try to go fast, I want us to catch up to the others before they get there too. Just in case.” All she could think about was Louis as the minivan turned right and sped down the street. She couldn’t get the thought out of her mind that this plan wasn’t going to go well at all, and that he was going to end up the one who dies next. 

“What the fuck?” Javier quickly hit the brakes upon seeing the Johnson’s humvee in front of him, surrounded by three of the same vehicles. Multiple soldiers got out of the surrounding humvees, with rifles in hand and aimed at all windows. “Um, Clementine, I think we got a problem here” Javier said as he pointed towards the commotion.

Clementine looked from the front window to see Louis being dragged out of the humvee, by no other then the person she never wanted to see again. Ramirez. “Fuck….fuck! Clementine grabbed the pistol on her side and went to open the door, only to see multiple soldier appearing out from the surrounding forest. 

It was a trap. 

They were surrounded.

Ramirez threw Louis to the ground and walked towards the minivan. As he crept closer and closer, Javier could feel the pure evil in the man. It was all over him, his face, his unkempt, receding hair, his walk, his sinister smile, everything. It all screamed wicked. The devilish man knocked on the driver side window, and motioned his pointer finger down to tell Javier to roll down the window. Javier hesitated, and took another look around. They walked right into a trap, there was no escaping it. He rolled the window down, and right on key he ended up staring at the barrel of an old silver magnum revolver.

Ramirez peered into the back seat and set his gaze onto Clementine. “Well, well, well. Look who it is. I knew you little fucks would be nothing but trouble as soon as Sanchez let you go. Lucky for me, you guys are gullible as shit. You really thought we didn’t know about your ‘plan’? All it took was a little good old fashioned interrogation, and Johnson was singing like a fucking bird. Just some advice for you, never trust a fucking coward. Not that it matters now, you guys had your chance to live and you blew it.” Ramirez smiled as he reached his opposite hand into the car, and opened the driver's side door, while keeping his revolver aimed straight between Javier’s eyes. “Now get the fuck out of the car, all of you.”

Clementine cursed herself under her breath. How could she be fooled so easily? She should’ve known never to trust someone on the enemy side, even if their intentions seemed good. It just didn’t make sense though. Something about Johnson just seemed different to her. She genuinely thought that he really was just trying to help her get her home back. But once again, she made the wrong call, and now she was going to really pay for it this time. 

She looked down to Aj, who was sporting a face of sheer anger. “Johnson…. I thought he was a friend. He betrayed us! Why would he do that Clem?”

Clementine wanted to console the young boy, but in the moment she had no idea what to say to make the situation seem any better than it was. “It doesn’t matter now. Don’t worry Aj, we’re going to get out of this. I promise.” 

A large military truck drove down the street from the direction of the school and parked next to Ramirez. It was a large vehicle designed to transport multiple people in the back. “All right kids, everyone inside the back of the truck.” Clementine and company listened against their will, and they all climbed into the back of the truck. They were all quickly frisked before entering by an unknown female soldier, who took all of the weapons that any of them had on them. “Why the sour faces? You’re all going back home. Isn’t that what you wanted? Come on, at least you’re all gonna die in the comfort of your own home. That’s gotta count for something right? Not that I care, if it was up to me you’d all be dead already.” 

Ramirez closed the back door to the truck as Ruby, the last one to enter, climbed inside. “Enjoy the ride kids, because it might just be your last one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. If you did, leave a comment and give me some feedback on how the story is going so far, it would be greatly appreciated.


	8. Consequences

“Clem!” No response.

“Clem!” Nothing once again.

“Clem!” Finally after Aj’s persistent yelling, Clementine slowly opened her eyes.

“Aj?.......Where…. Where am I?” Clementine asked as she scanned her surroundings. It was dark. Very dark. All that she could see as she looked around was Aj, only because he was right in her face screaming at her. 

“We’re in the basement of the school, those sons of bitches locked us down here” Ruby said as she walked close enough to Clementine for them to see each other. “You okay?”

“Yeah i’m fine, I think. How did I go out anyways?” She tried to think back to what could’ve happened, but the last thing she remembered was being forced into the back of the military truck by Ramirez and his goons. 

Ramirez.

He was going to pay, that Clementine knew.

“Well, I don’t know really. You just passed out in the back of the truck. We were all really worried about you. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes I feel fine” Clementine responded as she went to stand up. “Where are my crutches?”

Louis walked over to the trio with a look of fury on his face. “That asshole Ramirez took them.” He clenched his fists, wishing that there was something he could’ve done to stop him.

Clementine sat back down against the wall and cracked her knuckles. She wouldn’t be able to walk, but she had to find a way to escape from the basement. The place only gave her bad memories, it was the one part of the school that she tried to avoid ever since the incident with Marlon and Brody.

“We have to get out of here” Clementine said as she once again looked around the area. Her eyes were slowly but surely adjusting to the dark, so everything was becoming clearer. The basement was completely emptied out, with the rest of the Ericson survivors scattered around the floor, along with Javier and Gabe standing in the corner near the basement entrance.

“And then what?” Violet asked as she pointed to the ceiling. “There’s about fifty people above that’ll shoot right when they see us try to leave. It’s pointless.”

“Well we can’t just stay here” Clementine argued. “They’re going to kill us either way. We have to do something.” Clementine had enough of getting bullied around by these guys. If she was going to go down it was going to be as a warrior, not as a prisoner.

Violet shook her head as she sat back down. To her it was pointless to even try. “Knock yourself out then Clem. The door’s locked and there’s nothing down here to open it up with. We’re stuck.”

“We can’t just give up!” Aj yelled as he ran over to the basement doors. “We’re gonna get out of here guys, we have to.” He started furiously shaking the doors to the basement with all of the strength in his small body. Sadly, his efforts were not rewarded as the door didn’t budge at all.

Aj pouted as he sat back down next to Clementine and crossed his arms. It was starting to become clear to everyone that Violet might be right. There was no way to escape, they were trapped.

“This wouldn’t have happened if you all just listened to me.” Violet chimed in as she punched the wall. “We could’ve killed these bastards and they wouldn’t have been a problem anymore. But no, it’s a better idea to trust one of their own to help us right?” Violet turned her head and glared at Clementine who was looking straight down at the floor. “Good call Clem, like always.”

Clementine’s head shot up as she locked eyes with Violet, staring her down. “You know, you always seem to have a problem with what I do, but I don’t see you fucking stepping up and making any big decisions! If you don’t like me then fine, I don’t care. But your constant bitching isn’t helping anyone. So unless you have something to say that will help us get out of here, shut the fuck up!”

Clementine completely shocked the room. Everyone was silent, and surprised at what they just heard. 

Violet sighed. Clementine was right and she knew it, her complaining was accomplishing absolutely nothing. She was just looking for someone to blame for the mess that they were in, and Clementine was an easy target. She mumbled a few choice remarks and stopped talking.

“What was that Violet?”

“Nothing.”

“Alright then. Now, everybody look around. There has to be some way out of here.”

The group listened to Clementine, partially out of fear after the verbal beating she gave Violet, and scanned the room. 

“There’s nothing here” Louis said as he searched through the dark basement. “They must have taken everything out of here.”  
As the group scoured the room for any means of escape, the doors flew open. Bright lights appeared from the entrance as Ramirez descended down the stairs with two soldiers on each side of him with flashlights in one hand and pistols in the other. “Everyone in a line!” He ordered, forcing everyone against the wall.

“So who the hell was making all that noise down here?” Ramirez asked as he scanned his prisoners. No one responded, unwilling to cooperate.

Ramirez’s face quickly turned to anger. “Someone better answer me fast, or i’m gonna start guessing who did it.” He studied each person one by one, watching for any signs of nervousness. 

Ramirez stopped once he got to Aj. “Hmm, you look a little guilty squirt. Now why is that? Did you do something you shouldn’t have?” He bent down to Aj, bringing his face inches from the kid’s.

“No, I didn’t,” Aj responded, keeping his cool. “Now get out of my face, your breath stinks.”

Ramirez didn’t find that very funny, the insult only succeeded in making him angrier. “I’m not fucking playing with you kid, tell me the truth.” He took a machete from his waistband, and pointed it right towards Aj’s leg. “You wanna end up like your mama over there, squirt?”

“STOP!” Clementine yelled at the top of her lungs.

Ramirez glanced over to Clementine. “Why should I?”

“Because it was me. I did it. Do what you want to me. Just don’t hurt him, please.”

Ramirez laughed as he walked over to Clementine, dragging his machete along the wall, creating an ominous scratching noise. “Really? That story sure doesn’t make sense. You see, I find it real hard to believe that you could get up and walk over to the door, and try to open it, without your crutches.”

Clementine cursed in her head. She almost forgot about that for a second. “I-..”

“It was me. I did it.” Louis nervously said. He wasn’t going to let Clementine or Aj get hurt, even if it was at the cost of his own safety.

Ramirez put his machete back into his waistband and walked towards Louis. He didn’t actually suspect it was Aj who did it, but he knew if the boy was threatened then whoever did would come clean. “Now, why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”

“I-...i’m sorry.” Louis responded as he looked down at the floor, ready for whatever punishment was coming.

“Well that’s really unfortunate, pal. If you just came clean in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any problems. But you wasted my time…… and that’s something I can’t get back. So it’s only fair to take something you can’t get back too, don’t you think?”

Louis continued to look down, knowing there was no way to get out of this. “Do…. do what you have to.”

“Very well.” Ramirez grabbed Louis by his hair and threw him into the middle of the large basement. “Now, what is it I should take? Your hands? Feet? Tongue? Ears? No, those aren’t enough for what you’ve done to me. You know what i’m thinking? Your life.” Without warning, Ramirez started slamming his fists into Louis’ face.

“Stop!” Clementine yelled as she instinctively shot up, only to lose her balance and fall face first into the ground.

One of the other soldiers ran over and pressed the barrel of their gun onto her head. “Don’t move, unless you want to be next.” The man ordered.

Ramirez continued his beating, fist after fist, after fist, after fist, straight to Louis’ face. “This is taking too long, time to speed this up.” He then alternated from punching to stomping Louis out in his military combat boots. He smiled as Louis’s blood splattered all over his hands and feet. 

“You gonna waste my time again? Huh?”

Louis struggled to open his mouth and speak. “I-..” He was cut off by Ramirez stomping on his chest, forcing him to cough up a dangerous amount of blood straight onto Ramirez’s face.

Ramirez smiled as he licked the blood from around his lips. “Alright i’ve had my fun.” He drew his machete from his waistband once more and pressed it against Louis’ throat. “Now it’s time to end this.”

“THAT’S ENOUGH RAMIREZ!”

Ramirez sighed and dropped his machete. A shadow of a giant quickly descended down the stairs.

“Have you lost your fucking mind Ramirez! When did I give you the order to go down here and beat the life out of anyone?” Sanchez asked as he walked up to Ramirez and grabbed him by his shirt. 

“Hey, he made a move at me! I had to deal with him.”

Sanchez looked down to Louis. He was barely alive. His face was completely covered in blood, almost to the point where he was unidentifiable. His breathing sounded like wheezing, and he seemed as though he was clinging to life. “Oh really? Is that true?”

“Yes.” Ramirez stuck with his story. “He went for my machete so I had to put him down.”

Sanchez walked up to Clementine and kneeled down to her level. “Clementine. What he’s saying, is it true? Did your friend over there really go for his machete?”

“No!” Clementine infurtiantly yelled. “He didn’t do anything! Your friend is a fucking psychopath!”

“Thanks for the honesty, Clem.” Sanchez turned back to Ramirez. “So you lied to me then? Is that what we’re doing now Ramirez?’

“You’re going to believe her over me? Seriously boss?”

“Fine then.” Sanchez turned over to one of the other soldiers in the room to get another account of the story. “Morris, who’s telling the truth? And don’t you fucking lie to me.”

Morris glanced over to Ramirez, who motioned his thumb around his neck from behind Sanchez’s back, indicating that he was going to kill Morris if he told the truth. “Uh- Ramirez. Yeah. Ramirez is telling the truth. That boy went for his machete.”

Sanchez glared at his soldier for a couple seconds and then turned back around. He knew what the truth was, but there was no way to prove it. “Ramirez. If you disobey my orders ever again and do something like this, I will kill you myself. You got it?”

Ramirez snorted and laughed. “You gone soft on me boss? It’s almost like you’re on these kid’s sides. Turning on your men…. That’s a real shame.”

Sanchez grabbed Ramirez by his neck and pushed him against the wall. “Don’t fucking question me Ramirez. Just follow my orders and stay in line, if you know what’s good for you. Because I’ve just about had it with your bullshit. Know your fucking role, and play it. Understood?”

Ramirez was screaming on the inside but masked it with a smile. “Understood, boss man. Now get your hands off me.”

Sanchez let Ramirez go and turned over to Clementine. “I’ll bring Johnson down here to look at the boy’s wounds. Don’t try to escape again, or you’re going to regret it.” With that Sanchez exited the basement, with all of the soldiers following. Seconds Later Johnson descended from the stairs as the basement doors closed behind him. He turned on his flashlight and aimed it at Louis, who remained in the same position, now unconscious.

“Jesus christ….” Johnson was in shock at what he saw. He kneeled down and took off a large duffle bag he had on his shoulder, opening it up and retrieving a first aid kit from it. Johnson kept his eyes on Louis, too guilty to even look at anyone else. He was the reason that they were here and he knew it. 

“This is your fault.” Clementine said as tears rolled down her eyes. “I trusted you…you piece of shit!” Clementie couldn’t hold it in any longer. She bursted into tears, and let out a long, loud cry of desperation. It was something that was a long time coming. She was holding back her feelings for so long to remain strong for the group, but seeing Louis like he was, she just couldn’t do it anymore.

Johnson still couldn’t look at Clementine. He knew if he did, he would burst into tears himself. “I’m sorry…. All of you. I had no choice, Ramirez already knew what was going on. It was my idea to bring you guys here, they were just going to kill you otherwise. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness… but I promise i’ll save this boy. I promise.” 

Johnson placed his fingers on Louis’ neck and checked his pulse. “He’s still got a steady pulse. Which is a good sign. Unless there’s any brain damage, his only long term problem will be the scars. But I can’t judge that until he wakes up, sadly.” He started to clean and disinfect all of the wounds on Louis’ face, and checked for any more serious wounds. “The only serious wound I see is this gash on his left cheek. I’m gonna have to stitch this up.” Johnson worked fast but careful, swiftly closing up the gash with needle and thread.

“Is he going to be okay?” Violet asked as she walked over to Louis’ unconscious body.

“Well, he’s not out of the woods yet. He definitely took a beating, that’s for sure. But he should recover just fine, given proper rest and medication for the pain.”

That of course didn’t reassure anyone in the group at all. Rest was a luxury that they couldn’t afford, so if they wanted Louis to recover safely, that meant staying as prisoners for who knows how long until he was better. It was just too much of a risk.

The group remained silent for a moment, contemplating what to do. Their thoughts were quickly cut off by the sound of gunshots coming from above them. Johnson immediately rose to his feet. “What the hell….. You guys stay put! I’ll figure out what’s going on.” He quickly ran out of the basement, slamming the basement doors shut as he left.

Aj shot to his feet and ran to the door. He gave it a light push, and sure enough it opened. “Guys! The door’s unlocked! Let’s get out of here!” He ecstatically said as he ran back to Clementine and extended his arm out to help her to her feet. 

Clementine shook her head as she listened above her. Shots were coming from all directions, along with yelling. Whatever was going on, it was serious. “I don’t know Aj. None of us have weapons, and we have no idea what’s going on. I think it’ll be smarter if we just stay down here, until we find a clear opening of escape.” She looked down to Louis, who was still out cold. “Plus, Louis is in no shape to be in a fight right now. We can’t risk it.”

“But we-”

“No Aj. We have to wait. Be patient ok? Once the perfect time comes we’ll take it, I promise. Just wait, and listen closely.” Clementine looked up to the ceiling, studying every gunshot she heard, trying to figure out what was happening. Whatever the conflict was, it was internal, because shots were ringing all throughout the school and the courtyard, not from the gate.

After a few minutes of restless waiting, the basement doors flew open again as Johnson ran down with two large duffle bags, along with four other soldiers.

“What’s going on?” Clementine quickly asked.

Johnson clicked on his flashlight to reveal a look of terror on his face. “Look, I don’t have much time to explain. But there’s a fucking revolution going on up there. Ramirez gathered some people, and they just fucking turned on Sanchez. Everyone is fighting, and most don’t even know who to shoot. This is our chance Clem.” Johnson opened one of the duffle bags, revealing multiple assault rifles. “While they’re out there fighting themselves, we can go up there and drive them out. I took all of the weapons I could find from the stockpile. There should be enough for everyone.” Johnson wasn’t sure he was ready for this, but he committed to it in an effort to make up for the wrong he did to the Ericson survivors. “We can do this, it’s your only shot to get your home back.” Johnson reached into the duffle bag, pulled out two crutches and handed them to Clementine. “You ready?”

Clementine rose to her feet with the help of Aj and grabbed the crutches. “I’m ready.”

Everyone grabbed an assault rifle from the bag and Clementine grabbed a pistol. No one knew what was going to be the outcome, but they all knew one thing. It was time for a war, no other way around it. And they were going to win, no matter what.


	9. This Means War

An oddly peaceful silence filled the room as the group each took a weapon and stood near the basement door, ready for anything. No one knew what to think as they anticipated the battle that that was ahead. Each bullet that fired above them only raised more and more questions. Lily’s raiders was one thing, but now they had even stronger opponents, without the advantage of a bomb. The Ericson survivors had one thing though, one thing they would have to use if they wanted to survive. Home field advantage.

Johnson walked up the steps to the basement door, before turning around to see everyone looking up to him. They were waiting on his go. This was something that was unknown to him. Being a medic in the United States Army then a soldier for Sanchez’s army, he was used to taking orders. It was something that was just normal to him. No one ever looked to him for what call to make, until now. He quickly realized that they needed a plan, or he would be the reason many young boys and girls ended up dead.

“Alright guys…. Before we go up there, I need everyone to be on the same page. When we get up there, we stick together. We move in groups, and overwhelm the opposition. They already have enough on their plates from the sound of it, so we need to finish the job.” 

Johnson pointed to the four other soldiers who accompanied him in the rescue mission, starting with a short brown skinned girl with long black hair. “That’s Jones.” Then he moved his finger over to an elderly man with a thick graying beard. “That’s Lyon.” Next, he went to a dark skinned male with a buzz cut and a scar resembling a cross along the middle of his nose. “That’s um, also Jones. But you can just call him scar I guess.” Lastly he pointed his finger to a heavyset man with a large pointed nose and ears that pointed completely outward. “And lastly, that’s Ricci. Those are your only allies. Anyone else in uniform, shoot on site, because they’ll do the same as soon as they see you. Understood?” 

Clementine nodded, speaking for her group. She didn’t much like the idea of following the man who got her imprisoned in the first place, but she let it go knowing that it was the only way for her and the others to make it out in one piece. There was one thing that she still wasn’t sure about, though. “What about Louis?” 

“Don’t worry, he’ll be safe down here. Safer than up there at least. And if things go according to plan, you can greet him when he wakes up by having the school back under your control.” Ricci consoled in a thick italian accent as he walked towards Johnson at the basement door, ready to fight. Although his looks almost made him look like a goofy cartoon character, he was in fact very deadly and effective, shown through many years of combat experience.

Clementine still didn’t feel completely convinced that Louis would be safe. She had an idea though, one that would kill two birds with one stone. “Aj, come here.”

Aj walked over to Clementine. “Yeah Clem?”

“I have an important job for you ok? I need you to stay down here and keep Louis safe.” She grabbed a pistol that was in the duffle bag and handed it to him. “If anyone comes down here, you shoot them. Got it?”

Aj shook his head angrily. “No way Clem, i’m staying with you! We work better as a team, remember?”

“I’m sorry, but my choice is final. I need you to stay down here and watch Louis, it’s more important. Someone has to watch him.” After the events that unfolded during the attack on Lily’s raiders, Clementine swore that she would never put Aj in that kind of danger again. Not just because she wanted to keep him safe, but because she was scared of what he would become. The emotionless look in Aj’s eyes as he shot Lily over and over still haunted her to this day. He was growing up far too fast, and if he ended up in the middle of a firefight once again in such a short span of time, Clementine was afraid that he would turn into a monster. No matter what, she wouldn’t let that happen.

Aj still looked very angry. The stubborn boy still wanted to go out and fight with his friends, and keep Clementine safe. He also made a promise of his own that same day, that he would protect Clementine now that she was at a disadvantage fending for herself with one leg.

Clementine smiled and brought her mouth to Aj’s ear. “Don’t tell anyone, but I only want you to do this because you’re the only one here that I trust enough to protect Louis. Now can you do this for me, please?” Clementine whispered. 

Aj’s face quickly lit up as he heard this. At the end of the day, even after all he went through, Aj was still a kid. And as most kids do, it made him feel happy when he was looked at as helpful. “Ok Clem, i’ll do it. Just promise me you’ll tell me if you get in trouble, ok?”

“Ok Aj, I promise.” Clementine responded.

“Any other questions or concerns before we do this?” Johnson asked. No one responded. His heart started speeding up as he turned around to face the outside. It was time now, no more delaying the inevitable. “Let’s go then. Everyone stay close.”

Johnson ascended up the stairs and tightly gripped his rifle. As much as he tried to seem confident going into the battle, he never took a human life before. Walkers sure, but never a human one. Even throughout his time in the military, he chose to not fire his rifle once. It was just something he could not bring himself to do. But now it seemed to him that he had no choice, being that he was leading about a dozen people into battle. It simply wasn’t the time to be a pacifist anymore.

The first thing to meet Johnson’s eyes as he walked through the basement door was the barrel of a rifle. A large shadow figure masked by the shadows stood in front of the soldier, with eyes shining through the darkness, leering down at him. Almost instantly, Johnson knew who it was.  
“Looks like Ramirez was right. You are a fucking traitor.” The shadow figure claimed in a deep South American accent, revealing that it was who Johnson feared. Sanchez was alive, and he made it back to the basement.

Johnson was at a loss for words. He only hoped that whoever was behind him had a clear shot to Sanchez’s head. If they didn’t, he would be dead in a matter of seconds. “I-...”

The ear splitting bang of a rifle sounded off inches away from Johnson’s right ear, deafening him. He stumbled forward and dropped to his knees as loud ringing surged through his head. Multiple shots rang out right next to him, only sounding like whistles to his deafened ears. He looked up to see his fellow comrade Ricci running full speed from behind him.

“get down…” Johnson faintly heard as his hearing slowly came back to him. Ricci wrapped his arms around Johnson's waist before colliding his body into him, successfully tackling him to the ground. Ricci quickly got off of the much smaller Johnson, trying not to hurt him.

Johnson’s hearing finally returned to him as he quickly scanned his surroundings to assess the situation. Sanchez was gone. Nowhere to be found.

“What the fuck just happened?” Johnson asked as he shot his face over to Ricci, who was taking cover behind an overturned table, firing off rounds towards the school.

“I hit that son of a bitch Johnson, but I only grazed him. I think he ran back into the school.” Ricci yelled as he continued raining fire towards the school windows. He quickly shielded himself back behind the table as shots rang back towards his direction from the school windows, nearly hitting him. 

Even though their attack started in the worst possible way, Johnson knew that they had to push forward while the fighting from inside the school continued. Shots were still ringing out from every window of the old boarding school, but it was only a matter of time that it would stop. If whoever was fighting proceeded, they would either run out of ammo, or they would all end up dead in at most ten more minutes.

“We have to keep moving, now! Move from cover to cover and get inside the school while we have the advantage! Move!” Johnson ordered as he charged toward the school, running completely on the adrenaline pumping through his body. He aimed his rifle into the window closest to the school entrance, and let off two precise shots. Both of them were clean hits, straight to the head of a soldier who was letting off shots towards him. It was Johnson’s first kill, let alone his first time even firing a gun at a man, and to his surprise, he felt absolutely nothing. The only thoughts going through his mind in the moment were telling him to keep going, no matter what. He didn’t even look back to see if anyone was following him.

Johnson quickly made it to the boarding schools doors and ran inside. The noise of gunfire heightened dramatically as he entered the building.   
He quickly turned to his left. 

No one.

He quickly turned to his right. 

“Johnson, what hap-”

The figure directly to Johnson’s right was gunned down mid sentence from bullets that fired directly behind him again. His ears already adapted to the deafening noise of gunfire as it was nothing compared to the blaring shots he heard only moments ago. He turned around to see Javier, who was right behind Johnson the entire way.

The two exchanged nods and continued onwards. They both knew there was no time for talking, only acting. Javier’s main driving force keeping him side to side with Johnson was Gabe. All he could think about was making sure he would make it back to The New Frontier safely, and that meant killing anyone who stood in his way.

The rest of the group shortly entered the school after them, with Clementine lagging behind. The man of the Jones siblings, or scar, stopped and turned around to Clementine. He respected her bravery for fighting on crutches, but it was only putting her in extreme danger moving so slowly.

“I applaud your commitment, but you’re far too slow for battle.” Scar bent his knees slightly and pointed towards his back. “I can carry you. Just cover me.”

Clementine hesitated, but quickly dropped her crutches as she climbed onto the man's back and wrapped her arms around the man’s shoulders with her pistol in one hand. She wasn’t going to object, it was obviously the smarter decision. She could worry about her crutches later.

Jones swiftly caught up to the rest of the group inside the school, with Clementine hoisted onto his back, acting as his third eye. He followed as the group pushed down into the heart of the gunfire, checking every corner for any surprises.

A figure bursted out of the many bedroom doors around Scar and Clementine as they walked down the living quarters halfway. He aimed his rifle at the two, but not quick enough for Clementine who emptied two bullets into the man, one in the chest and the second one in the head to finish the job, dropping him instantly upon impact. 

The two then continued to push forward, checking every door for any more stray soldiers. It seemed most of them were fighting in the piano room, which was right down the hall. Without any hesitation, they were going into the eye of the storm.

Johnson slowly crouched low to the ground as he stared into the piano room. What he saw was complete chaos. Shots were coming from both his left and his right, from anywhere he looked. No one knew who was the friend and who was a foe, and it resulted in complete mayhem. Soldiers were killing people next to them, and most were standing out in the open shooting, sitting ducks to the crossfire. It was only a matter of time before everyone in the room ended up dead. 

Javier stopped as he analyzed the situation as well, turning to Johnson. “We can’t go in there it’s fucking suicide.”

“You’re right.” Johnson agreed as he turned around. The chances of them making through that alive were slim to none. Not to mention it was clear that would kill each other, Johnson and company didn’t need to interfere.

Scar looked up, hearing faint yelling coming from above him, along with gunfire. Even through the heavy gunfire, he recognized the voice. “Sanchez. He’s up there.” He stated as he walked up the stairs then towards the headmaster’s office, where yelling seemed to be coming from. As he got closer, him and Clementine started to pick up what was being said.

“You…. fucking psycho!” Yelled Sanchez, recognizable by the thick spanish accent. Clementine could hear the fear in his voice.

“ I’m no psycho boss, i’m just accomplishing my duty I was brought to this earth to fulfill. To go out in a blaze of glory.” A weak raspy voice yelled through the gunfire. It was pretty easy to identify who the voice was coming from. It was Ramirez.

“Go ahead and kill me.” Ramirez added. “It won’t change a damn thing. You’ll still die. You can’t stop me now.” Something was different about Ramirez. His true nature was on full display now, he was finally in a situation where he felt could be truly at peace. His voice calmy spoke through the seemingly endless madness that was in full effect below him. It clearly sounded like he was pleased with the chaos that he caused.

Two shots fired from inside the headmaster’s office as Ramirez yelled, followed by a loud thud. 

“If you’re so happy with what you caused, you can burn here then.” Sanchez yelled as he ran towards the exit of the office, opening the door to be greeted by Scar and Clementine, both aiming their guns at his head.

Sanchez didn’t back down, and aimed his rifle to the head of Scar, creating a standoff.

“Alright, calm down now. Take it easy Jones. Don’t do anything crazy.” Sanchez said, trying to defuse the situation.

“What were you talking to Ramirez about?” Scar interrogated. He wasn’t going to back down, with Clementine he had the upper hand, and he knew Sanchez was aware of that as well.

“Well, simply put, you have a lot bigger things to worry about then killing me. That Crazy bastard rigged all of our explosives in that office to blow. We got maybe five minutes tops to get out of here before this whole place is a fucking wasteland. Now are you gonna let me go or what? As much as I like a good old fashioned standoff, i’m afraid I don’t have time for games. So shoot me, or move.”

Scar focused his aim in between Sanchez’s eyes, and lightly pressed his finger on the trigger of the rifle. He almost forced himself to pull the trigger, but just couldn’t bring himself to go through with the kill. Sanchez was once his brother in arms, and always had his back for years dating back before zombies were nothing but fictional characters. He lowered his weapon slowly.

“Clementine, don’t shoot him. Let him go. He’s not your enemy.” Scar pleaded to the girl on his back, who still had her sights fixed on Sanchez.

Clementine contemplated pulling the trigger as well, but stopped herself last second. For some reason, even though this man was the reason they were all in this situation in the first place, she didn’t feel right pulling the trigger. She remembered how he was on their side in the basement, and she respected him for defending Louis, even if she came into the battle with the intent to take him out.

“Drop your weapon, and we’ll let you go.” She ordered as she kept her gun raised.

Sanchez complied and dropped his gun slowly. All that mattered to him was getting out in one piece. True to his word, Scar moved away from the office door, allowing Sanchez to exit. He did so immediately, running past the rest of the group who were listening from the top of the stairs, and bolting to the exit.

Johnson approached Scar and Clementine in a hurry. “We have to get the fuck out of here too! What are you guys waiting for?”

Clementine ignored the man, looking into the office as she noticed that Ramirez was still alive. He was laying on the ground laughing silently to himself, with a bullet in each knee cap locking him to the floor.

“Scar, bring me over there.” Clementine quietly ordered as she locked her eyes onto Ramirez who had his eyes closed, his laughing rapidly getting louder and louder.

Scar listened and walked towards Ramirez, as Johnson watched with the rest of the group from the door.

Ramirez opened his eyes and smiled, upon seeing Clementine. “Look who it is….. I should’ve killed you a long time ago shouldn’t I have?” He laughed to himself. “No matter, we’re all sharing the same graves today.” He pointed over to a large mess of explosives, which were all wired to blow at any minute. “Tik, tik tik…. Do you feel it? That’s the feeling of death consuming you. Embrace it, running away from it will only make you die a coward.” Ramirez reached his hand out to the girl. “I can see it in your eyes, you’re just like me, deep down… Join me Clem. Join me in the afterlife. We can do great things together, I feel it.”

Clementine aimed her pistol directly to Ramirez’s head. “I’m nothing like you. You’re a monster…. I should just let you die here. But I have to be sure you’re dead.” She squeezed the trigger, then again, and again, emptying the rest of her clip into his skull. “Burn in hell.”

Johnson walked over and looked down to the remains of the fallen beast. “Well, I can’t say i’ll miss the filthy animal. But we have to get out of here now, come on!” Johnson ran down the stairs and back outside as the rest of the group followed, trying to avoid any conflict.

The group made it outside, and started running to the exit of the courtyard.

“Wait!” Clementine yelled. “We have to get Aj and Louis.” Her heart started racing as her mind shifted back into her motherly instincts. 

Scar turned to his sister.”Sasha, come with me. I need your help carrying the boy.”

Sasha nodded, and turned to Johnson. “We’ll go get them, the rest of you leave. We’ll meet you outside.”

“Alright.” Johnson was completely confident that the Jones twins could get the job done and make it out alive. They always did. No matter what the challenge, he knew better than to doubt the two of them. “See you on the other side.” 

With that Johnson ran towards the exit, followed by everyone else except Clementine, Sasha, and Scar who ran to the basement doors and descended down the stairs immediately, wasting no time.

“Who is it?” Aj called out as he noticed multiple figures descending to the basement. He quickly raised his weapon, ready to shoot.

Clementine felt a wave of relief run through her body as she heard Aj’s voice from below. “It’s me Aj.” She responded.

“Clem!”Aj ran towards the figures in the dark, noticing that Clementine was talking from on one of the figures' backs. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine. But we have to get out of here, now!”

“But why-”

“There’s no time Aj, we have to go! Follow us ok?”  
Aj was confused, but he knew that if something had Clementine shaken up, then it was serious. “o-ok.”

Sasha picked up the still unconscious Louis and slung the slender boy around her shoulder with ease, then immediately ran up the stairs with him. Scar stopped and picked up Aj with one arm, now carrying two people as he ran up the stairs and followed his sister towards the exit.

Shots continued to light up the windows of the school, as bullets barely missed Sasha and Jones while they neared the front gate. As soon as they made it to the front gate, a loud beeping noise blared back from the school.

It took all but half a second for Clementine to figure out what the noise was. 

“RUN, IT’S ABOUT TO-”

Clementine’s warning was cut off by the powerful wave of the explosion, sending Sasha and Scar straight to the ground.


	10. Aftermath

It was beautiful.

Chucky Jones looked into the sky and what he saw left him completely speechless. 

The stars were aligned so perfectly and so bright in the night sky that it didn’t feel real. Hundreds of figures formed through the heavenly gold dots in the sky as Scar panned his eyes left and right. He could see his wife, his mother, his dog, everyone and everything from his past that he loved and cared about were suddenly appearing in the sky like some sort of divine intervention.

He smiled as a single tear ran down from his right cheek. “I guess this is it.” He muttered to himself, coming to the conclusion that he was dying. It was the only logical explanation he could think of. He didn’t try to fight it, but instead slowly closed his eyes, accepting his demise.

“Chucky! Chucky! Snap out of it!”

Scar shot his eyes open as he snapped back into reality. He had no idea what had just happened, but he was sure that he was going to die. 

He quickly got up and brushed himself off, checking himself for wounds. Nothing. He looked over to the school which lay in destruction right in front of him. The entire school caught fire after the explosion, which was quickly spreading. 

“Are you alright?”, Scar’s sister, Sasha, said as she walked close to her brother and gave her own examination for wounds. All she thought after the impact of the explosion sent her to the ground was that she was dead, that her luck finally caught up to her. But somehow both her and her brother made it. 

Sasha quickly turned her head to see Clementine laying in the grass a few meters past Scar. The explosion shot her off his back as he fell, sending her flying forward. Aj was laying under her, hugging her by her torso she laid face first on the ground. She then looked over her shoulder to see Louis, who was sitting up as he finally regained consciousness. 

“Yeah i’m fine, I think.” Scar responded as he gave his body another quick inspection. “What about them?” 

“Clem-, she’s hurt.” Sasha ran over to Clementine immediately and kneeled down to her. She quickly rolled her off of AJ and onto her back. She checked both Clementine and Aj’s pulse. They were both alive, at least.

Aj opened his eyes to see Clementine still on the ground, which instantly brought him to his feet. “Clem! Is she ok?” Aj frantically asked, panicking. He hated seeing Clementine like she was, and he blamed himself for it, wishing he could’ve been strong enough to protect her.

“She’s fine, I think… It was weird, when you were out it looked almost like you were hugging her.”

“That’s because…. I was trying to protect the baby….”

Sasha’s eyes widened as she heard Aj’s response. She had no idea that Clementine was pregnant, if she did the young mother’s safety would have been her number one priority. It astounded her even more though that a boy as young as AJ was putting other people’s safety over his own, he was truly a man trapped in a child’s body.

“What you did….. Was really brave.” Sasha responded as she picked up Clementine. She was gonna get her out of the mess of a battle that they all went through, and somewhere safe where she could live long enough for the baby to be born.

“It doesn’t matter if she’s not ok. Please miss, can’t you help her?”

“I don’t know kid…. I’m not a professional when it comes to medical stuff. We have to find Johnson, that’s the only person who I would trust to help her.” Sasha scanned the area, looking for any possible areas where the rest of the group could have gone. The surrounding area was completely forest, which made tracking them a lot harder. She only hoped that everyone stayed together when they escaped, the last thing they needed was everyone spread apart.

Scar walked over to Louis, who was just still coming back to reality. “You alright kid? Can you walk?” he asked.

Louis nodded and stood up. The first thing he noticed as he got up was that his head was killing him, it felt almost like he had a thousand concussions throughout his brain. “Yeah… I think.” He turned to see Sasha with Clementine resting over her arms, and quickly ran over. “Clem! Is she alright?” 

“She should be fine, I think. But we have to go find Johnson now, to be sure.” Sasha looked down to the sleeping Clementine in her arms. All she could do now was pray that her and the baby would be ok.

“Alright, let’s go then.” Louis responded. He was panicking on the inside but tried to keep a calm demeanor as hard as possible. If he wanted to save Clementine, he couldn’t be panicking, not now. Now was time for him to step up, not back down.

XXX

Johnson looked back in shock as the explosion sounded off from inside the school. The crazy suicide mission that Ramirez accomplished rung throughout the entire surrounding area, deafening anything else.

The Jones twins flew through his head as his eyes remained glued to the blast zone. Did they make it through? Johnson and the others already made it a reasonably far distance from the school before the bombs went off, so it was anyone’s guess if they were alive. 

Johnson turned over to the group, who were scattered around, all with restless or worried looks on their faces. First thing was first. He had to make sure everyone made it out alive.

He scanned everyone in the group. All of his fellow soldiers were still there, minus the Jones twins. As for the Ericson survivors, it seemed like someone was missing, aside from Clementine, Louis, and Aj. “Is everyone here? I feel like we’re missing someone.”

All of the young Ericson survivors were looking down and not speaking. They knew who wasn’t there.

“Willy….” Violet whispered as she looked down and closed her eyes. 

“Where is he? Did anyone see him?” Ruby asked.

Tears ran down Violet’s eyes as she heard the question. She knew the answer, but it surely wasn’t anything anyone was hoping to hear. “He’s….dead.” 

“What?!” Aasim’s eyes lit up in fear. Of all people to die, Willy was the last person who would deserve such a fate. He was still young, and had a whole life ahead of him.

“He got shot when we were running out……..I wanted to save him…...but it was too late.” Violet clenched her fist and tried to fight the surge of tears that were racing down her face. She always thought Willy was annoying, but without him, the group would never be the same. He was such a unique person, and to all of the Ericson survivors he was irreplaceable. 

“FUCK!” Violet let out at the top of her lungs. Johnson could feel the pain in her voice as she screamed. He couldn’t help but think this was all his fault, that he could’ve saved everyone if he planned out his attack enough. Everything happened so fast, and one of the people he was trying to save paid for it as a result.

Violet wiped her tears and started to calm herself down by taking a few deep breaths. There was no time to grieve, not until Clementine and the others were found. “We have to move, we have to find everyone else. They made it out, they had to.”

“Yeah you’re right, we have to find them. I’m sorry about your friend, but if we don’t find them we’re gonna lose a lot more.” Johnson looked towards the flames coming from the school.The fire was quickly spreading, it wouldn’t be long until the whole surrounding forest was up in flames. It truly was a fitting end to someone as evil as Ramirez. 

“Johnson… we gotta problem here..” Lyon nervously said as he looked in the opposite direction from the school. In the distance, a figure slowly crept closer to the group. What Lyon thought was a walker was getting closer, but that wasn’t what had him shocked. It was who it was that had him shocked. 

The man who was nearing the group was Sanchez. He was covered in blood, and limping gingerly towards the group. Lyon raised his weapon, ready to put down his former superior, and end his misery.

Sanchez was not turned just yet though, as he moved closer it became apparent that he was still alive, but his entire body was covered in bites.

“Lyon…… “ Sanchez weakly said. That one word exerted his entire remaining energy, sending his face first into the grass. Lyon quickly ran to him, and rolled him over. Johnson quickly ran over as well.

“He’s….. Torn up.” Johnson was astounded by the amount of bites that covered Sanchez’s large frame. “Has to be, dozens of bites. What happened Sanchez?”

Sanchez was still alive, but in complete agony. Somehow, through all the pain, he let out a light chuckle. “Who would’ve thought….letting a bunch of kids live would be my downfall…... Well it doesn’t matter now I guess. We’re all dead now….”

“What? What are you talking about Sanchez?” Johnson asked.

“The herd… from out west. They caught up to us. We’re all fucked.”

Johnson’s eyes widened as he froze from what he heard. It couldn’t be true. “A-are you sure? How could you be sure? There’s no way they caught up to us already.”

“It was the herd…. I’m positive. I’ve never seen anything like it….. There’s gotta be thousands of those fuckers coming right this way.”

“No….no…” Johnson stumbled backward, recounting all of the lost memories that he tried so hard to tuck deep into his mind. The memories of the terrible hoard, whose numbers were so high that it forced a small army to run for their life, came soaring back to him. And if they made it this far, odds were that their numbers hadr increased since the last time.

“Herd? What are you talking about?” Violet asked, stepping forward. 

Sanchez let out a few dangerously loud and raspy coughs, and spit up blood as he tried to get back to his feet, but to no avail. He gave up on trying to hold on, and rolled into his back, accepting defeat. “Johnson…. You were a good soldier. I doubted you, because I felt you were just too soft for this world….But maybe I was wrong. Maybe the compassion and the care is what makes us human, what separates us from the walkers. Don’t lose that humanity Sam….. Don’t end up like him….” Sanchez pointed towards the former school as he closed his eyes and his body went limp.

Johnson kneeled down to Sanchez’s lifeless body. “Sanchez….. I can’t say you were a good man, but you always had your soldier's backs. You were a true warrior.” He removed a rosary from his neck and placed it into the right hand of Sanchez. “May god show forgiveness for your sins, so you can rest in peace.” 

Javier decided he had enough of standing around listening to everyone speak. “If what he’s saying is true, we have to find the others. We can’t leave them out here to figure things out on their own. Now if you’re done, we should get moving. Once we find them, we can go back to the new frontier. You’re all welcome there.”

Johnson took a deep breath and went back to his feet, aiming his rifle at Sanchez’s head. “You’re right.” Without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight through the dead man’s skull. Once again he thought he would feel something. Grief? Regret? Fear? Nothing. All that ran through his mind was finishing the job, and getting everyone away from the hoard safely.

“Let’s get moving.” Johnson didn’t have to finish his sentence for everyone to shoot to their feet, ready to find their friends and get away from the hoard, which was nearing closer and closer to them every second.

XXX

Clementine slowly opened her eyes to be greeted by a smiling Louis right above her. 

“Look who’s finally awake! You had us worried you know.” Louis said as he carried Clementine in his arms. 

This situation was getting way too familiar to her, waking up from a nap that she didn’t plan for. But unconscious was better than alive, and she was alive for now, so she considered herself lucky. 

“Aj.. is he..”

“CLEM!” Aj ran over to Clementine and smiled ear to ear. He was overjoyed to see that she was okay. All of the close calls Clementine was having was getting a little too stressful for the young boy. “Are you okay?” He worryingly asked.

“Yeah, i’m fine, I think. I feel fine at least.” Clementine was more worried about her child’s well being. Sadly, there was no way to see if the baby was okay from inside of her.

Sasha slowed down and turned to Louis and Clementine. “Good to see you awake. I don’t think I could have listened to the kid ask me if you were gonna be okay for much longer. He’s really persistent, you know.”

Clementine smiled. “Oh I know.”

“I’m starting to think you’re immortal Clem” Louis chimed in. “There’s no way any regular person could have as many close calls as you and be okay. Then again, I should know better by now, you aren’t just any regular person.”

“You got that right” Clementine responded. 

“Regular person or not, you still have a baby inside of you. Not that any of this has been your fault, but you have to stop being so reckless, for the baby’s sake. You shouldn’t even have come here in the first place” Sasha explained. It baffled her that a pregnant amputee was deemed fit enough for combat by everyone else. 

She shifted her eyes to louis. “Why didn’t you stop her from coming here?”

“Well… she’s not really easy to convince.” Louis said. “She wanted to come, there’s nothing I could've done to stop her.”

“I’m a big girl, I can make my own decisions.” Clementine remarked. “Just because i’m pregnant doesn’t mean i’m going to back down when it’s time to fight.”

“Jeez, I see where that kid gets his stubbornness from” Scar said as he casually jumped into the conversation. “But my sister’s right, sometimes you have to back down for things that are more important. It doesn’t make you weak. You have a life on your hands, what happens to that kid is up to you.”

Scar and Sasha knew Clementine’s situation all too well, and they hated seeing someone going through the same thing as they once were. “If I was smart and backed down when I should have, I wouldn’t have been incarcerated, and I would have been able to protect my family, from all of this…” Scar quietly explained under his breath.

“Why were you in jail anyways?” Louis asked. “You guys seem astoundingly normal compared to the people you used to hang around.”

Scar sighed, as he was forced to go back into the past he was hoping he could forget forever. “It’s a long story, but basically when me and my sister were deployed overseas, our squad was ambushed by the enemy while we were out on a scouting mission. We lost half a dozen of our friends, people we spent every day with for years. People we trusted our lives with. Once we made it back to our base, our boss told us not to retaliate. That new orders came in from back home. We were going home…. I thought I would be happy to hear that. All I could think about though was killing every last person that ambushed us, and my sister and I both agreed that we would never leave the country until we finished the job. And that night we did just that…”

Sasha saw the memories flow through her mind as she listened, clenching her fists. “No action comes without a consequence though… our superior found out about our vendetta mission and instead of medals and honor, we were locked in a cage for desertion.”

“You see Clementine, if I just backed down and listened, I could have been able to be with my family during the outbreak. But instead, I was stuck with a bunch of homicidal maniacs, and to this day I don’t know what happened to anyone in my family.” Scar looked down to his feet in shame as he thought about the foolish decision his past self made. “I regret that choice every day, every time I wake up and every time I go to sleep. It haunts me…. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You said it best, you’re a big girl. Just remember what my sister said, no action comes without a consequence.”

“What do you suggest I do then?” Clementine asked. “I’ve seen enough to know that there’s no true peace in this world anymore. I thought I found it in that school, but now it’s gone in a pit of flames. Backing down isn’t really an option anymore.”

“Well, if I were you, once we find your group and get everyone somewhere safe… you three should go. Out on your own. Somewhere far away from any other living people. That’s the only way to find true peace in this world now. The only way you can truly guarantee a good life for that kid.” Scar responded.

Louis shook his head. He didn’t agree with the suggestion, not one bit. “And leave all of our other friends behind? No way, we can’t do that.”

“Look kid, one day you gotta decide what’s more important to you. Your friends, or your family. And if you’re a real man, you don’t have to think about that answer.” Scar explained.

“Every one of those people, they’re our family too. We’re not just going to leave them behind.” Clementine said. She once agreed with the idea that groups were a terrible thing, but being with the Ericson survivors for so long made her attached to everyone there. 

Scar raised his hands into the air. “Relax kid, you asked for my suggestion and I gave it to you. You don’t have to listen to me, I'm just another guy in a world filled with em after all. Just keep an open mind, okay?”

Sasha raised her pointer finger to her brother’s lips. “I see someone…” She squinted and quickly realized it wasn’t just someone. “It’s Johnson! And it looks like he’s with everyone else.. They all made it.. They all made it!” She exclaimed as she ran full sprint towards the group in the distance. 

Once she made it to them, the look of horror on Johnson’s face told her something was up. “Johnson…? What’s wrong? What happened?”

Johnson's relief of seeing that she was ok was completely blocked by the fear of the hoard stalking him and the others. “Sasha…. We have to go, now!”

“What’s going on Johnson?” Scar asked as he caught up to his sister along with Louis, Aj, and Clementine.

“The hoard… it’s back. We have to go, come on!”

The fear in Johnson’s voice wasn’t enough to convince Scar. “No way they caught up to us already.. That’s not possible.”

“See for yourself then” Johnson responded as he turned around and pointed forward. 

To Scar’s surprise, there it was. As soon as he saw it he knew that it was the same hoard as before. Thousands of shadowy figures, coming right towards them.There was no time for a plan, they had to get away, and fast.


End file.
